Doctor's Orders
by jayan0706
Summary: "Go back to your bed. Doctor's orders." "What are you going to do? Chain me to the bed?" "No, but I'll take away your desert privileges." To try and fulfill his dream of becoming a doctor, Will Solace applies for a job at Half-Blood Hospital. What happens when the patient he's assigned to is cold and stubborn Nico Di Angelo? Solangelo (Will x Nico) Hospital AU
1. New Jobs and Saxophones

**Will POV:**

"This seems all in order, Mr. Solace. You're hired."

_Hired._

The word rang through the room, but Will could hardly believe it. He was _hired_! Finally he had a chance to prove his mother wrong, the chance to prove he _could _become a doctor.

Sure, this job at the hospital was only as a caretaker for one particular patient whom he didn't even know the name for yet, but it was _something_, right? They all had to start their dreams _somewhere._

Feeling oddly giddy, Will swallowed his excitement down and asked in what he hoped was a very professional voice, "Thank you, sir. May I ask when I start?"

The man in front of him, Mr. Brunner, smiled and said, "Call me Chiron, Mr. Solace. _Sir_ makes me feel old."

Will nodded. "Okay, si-Chiron."

"As for when you start," Chiron continued, "Is tomorrow good enough for you? We have a short supply of nurses on hand, so I hope you don't mind taking a shift from 10:00am-12:25pm and 1:30pm to 5:30pm- quite a daunting amount of work for your first day, but it sounds like you're quite capable. Besides, it's summer, so you must have a lot of free time on your hands. Or have I got it wrong?"

"You haven't," Will hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. That _was _a lot of work, especially he had a limited amount of experience working. But he _had _to have this job. Throwing away a huge portion of his summer was worth it, he decided. "Don't worry, Chiron. I'll be there. You can count on me!"

"Great." Chiron's eyes sparkled. "Now as for the pay..."

* * *

The flow of classic Chopin music reached Will's ears as soon as he opened the door.

"I'm home!" Will threw his jacket onto the couch and stretched. The afternoon's events seemed to good to be true. He doubted that even if his mother told him to clean his room, he would lose his happiness. Not when he was hired at Half-Blood Hospital, which was his entire life's dream since his mom told him his father had been a doctor.

The piano stopped playing immediately as Josephine Solace ducked her head into the hall. "Did you have fun with Butch and Chris?"

"Um, yeah," Will mumbled. He was horrible at lying, for some reason. When he left for his job interview, he'd told his mom he was going to hang out with his friends instead of the truth. The only reason she's bought it was because she'd been playing the violin at the time- and nothing, not even her son, could distract her from music. "About that..."

"Go practice your saxophone." His mom's head disappeared as the music continued playing (Mozart, this time). Will sighed. He got that his mom was a world-famous musician, but did she have to expect that he would be the same thing? Sure, he liked music...well, when he was listening to someone else's. He couldn't play an instrument to save his life, which made his mother despair more than once. But she still hadn't lost hope. Josephine seemed adamant in the fact that if only Will practiced more, he would awaken his inner talent or something. Will thought if he practiced that much, his fingers would fall off.

The only thing Will was good at, it seemed, was healing. He seemed to have a knack for it. On top of that, all that scientific language the doctors used made _sense _to him, and he loved that. It was like having a secret language that only doctors could understand.

If only his mother could understand his disinterest in music, and this would be the best summer ever, Will thought gloomily as he dragged his feet up the stairs. Josephine was smart, but stubbornly narrow-minded and strict with incredibly high expectations. She _hated _admitting she was wrong, no, in her mind, _Will _was always wrong and she was _right._

Sighing, Will opened his saxophone case, set the instrument up, and began to play.

* * *

The next morning, Josephine wasn't in a much better mood. Her chocolate brown eyes were narrowed in her signature suspicious stare. "Let me get this straight," she said. "_You _volunteered for a position at a music program? To help kids younger than you learn how to play?"

"Um, yeah?" This had to be the stupidest thing Will had ever done, but there was no other way his mom would let him go. "That's a good thing, right? I mean, you're always saying how I should play music more and, um, stuff."

"I do say that," Josephine admitted. "But _this _is well, unlike you. Are you sick?"

"What? No!"

"Do you have a fever? Do I need to make you some soup?"

"Definitely no," Will said. His mom believed soup was the sure to every sickness in the world. _Cucumber _soup, to be exact. Will made a mental note that if this worked and he became a doctor, he would never make any of his patients eat cucumber soup. That stuff was torture in disguise. "_Mom_, I'm fine. One would think that you'd react more positively to your son taking an interest in your area of expertise!"

"I am happy!" His mother snapped, which Will found very hypocritical. "I just think you're acting weird!"

"Gee, thanks!" Will hollered back. Why did practically every conversation he had with his mother always ended up being five second long or like _this_? "You know what? I'm leaving for the hospi-music centre now. See you."

Ignoring her cry of protest, Will opened the door and stepped outside.

* * *

The walk to the hospital was one of the most agonizing moments of Will's life. He was so excited to get there, so excited to be able to start his job, that it was a miracle he hadn't sprint all the way there (He would have, but then he remembered how physically unfit he was). Instead, he speed-walked as fast as he could and tried not to check his watch every five seconds.

_I've walked five steps. Just a lot more to go._

_Twenty steps. How far away is it again?_

_Thirty two steps. Keep going, Will!_

_Forty one and a half steps. Nearly done._

_Wait, am I at fifty or forty nine?_

Eventually, who-knows-how-much-steps later, Will finally reached the hospital. At the sight of the brown building, his face nearly split open with a grin. He was here, at long last! Oh, the walk had _so_ been worth it.

Taking the steps two at a time, Will made his way into the building. The automatic door slide open for him with a _whoosh,_ almost as if it was welcoming him.

"Hello?" Most people found the hospital loud and confusing, but Will found it strangely soothing. The white walls were oddly comforting, and the chemical smell the hospital had smelled like the perfume of home. He'd always tried to spend as much time as he could at doctor's clinics, optometrists' offices, or anywhere that had anything remotely medical, really. It was as if Will was a moth being attracted to the flame of healing.

"Are you Will Solace?" The receptionist at the front desk- Katie Gardiner, apparently, if he was reading her name tag right- asked him. "Chiron told me that you were coming. You're a newbie, right?"

"Sort of, yeah," Will said, not sure how exactly he was supposed to respond. "If you mean I'm new to the hospital, then yes. But I know a lot of stuff, and-"

Will faltered when Katie raised one hand as if to stop him. "Look, I don't need to know your entire life story. I'm sure you're really qualified, you wouldn't be here if you weren't. Just give me a few minutes so I can tell you what exactly you're doing, okay?"

"Um, sure?"

"You're assigned to Room 704, on the seventh floor," Katie explained. "I've got a few papers containing info about your patient. This week will be you're trail, during which the bosses will judge you on whether or not you're a keeper. You won't get paid this week, though if you make it to your second, you will."

Will nodded, he'd expected this.

"Your first concern is your patient," Katie said, and then she hesitated. "Your patient... well, I'm not sure you know this, but he's kind of...difficult."

Will wasn't sure if he'd heard that correctly. "Difficult? How?"

"Well, he'd never been able to keep a caretaker for more then five days," Katie winced. "And, well, floor seven is reserved for certain people with... bad attitudes. They can be kind of, uh..."

"I've got it," Will assured her. He decided not to judge his patient until he met him. He didn't like to get on by other people's opinions. Besides, he was confident that he could last longer then five days. He_had _to, otherwise his entire career was out the window, and who knew when he could get a chance like this again? "I'll see you around."

Katie's face was troubled, but just then the phone rang and she went to pick it up. "Hello, this is Half-Blood Hosiptal, how may I help,- STOLL! I TOLD YOU TO STOP CALLING!"

Will decided that now was a good time to leave.

* * *

_700, 701, 702, 703...Ah! There it was, good ol' 704._

Will stopped walking and stared at the door. On the other side, his patient was waiting for him. Once he opened the door, he would open the road to his dreams, and-

_Stop being __sappy, Solace, _Will scolded himself. You didn't let feelings take over while healing. You couldn't let your fear, excitement, or panic control you.

"You can do this," Will muttered to himself. "You are going to open this door, and do a good job, and then get a position at a medical school, and then become a doctor. Yes."

Taking a deep breath, Will composed himself and reached for the door...

... only to have it open by someone with midnight-black eyes.

**Random story that fell into my head yesterday night and stuck with me. This whole thing was super easy and quick to write. I swear, there's something wrong with how unnaturally fast I got this typed up...**

**LAST EDITED 24/01/15.**

**REVIEW!**


	2. Meeting Each Other

**Nico's POV:**

"You're not supposed to be out of bed." Was the first thing out of his new caretaker's mouth.

Nico rolled his eyes inwardly. When was the hospital going to give up? Did they seriously think that this-Nico checked his name tag- _Will_would be any different than the countless others before him? Gods, they were so dense. This newbie was the same as all of them. Nico smirked. "Who says? You?"

"Yes, me," The caretaker told him, ignoring the jibe. "I'm your new caretaker, so I expect you to do it, too."

Nico cocked his head to the side and glanced at Will to size him up. Not that he looked very impressive,- he had sunlight-lit shaggy blond hair and pale, sky-blue eyes. He wore the standard green surgeon-like shirt along with a pair of flip-flops, which Nico was sure were _not _standard hospital protocol. He reminded Nico a little of Jason Grace, a cousin of his, except in a way, they were totally different. Will's gaze was soft and far away, and looked incredibly nonthreatening. He kind of reminded Nico was of a household cat stretched out in his garden. Jason was, well, the opposite of that.

Nico frowned and said, "Two."

"What?" Will didn't look like he got what he'd said. "Two?"

"Two days," Nico explained. "Though I might be being too generous. If you ask me, you probably won't last two hours."

"You're betting on how long I'll last," If Will found that comment insulting, he didn't say so. "Now go back to bed."

Nico made a face and sighed. "Full credit for persistence, I suppose." The he raised his head to look at his caretaker, eyes darkening. "Unfortunately for you, I can be persistent, too. _No_."

"Yes," Will insisted. "You're in no shape to be running around wearing only _that._"

Will gestured to his patient clothes, which, sadly, weren't black. "I know it's summer, but the air conditioning here makes the building pretty cold. The last thing I want is you getting sick. Back in your bed. Doctor's orders."

Nico narrowed his eyes. "And what if I don't? Will you chain me to the bed?"

"No," Will said. "I'm not that mean. But I will take away your dessert privilege."

Black eyes bore down at him for ages, but Will stared back unflinchingly. Nico was torn between disbelief and shock. His death-glare was famous throughout the hospital, but Will seemed to be immune. Nico stepped back.

Will nodded, then glanced around at the room. The sheets from the bed were propped on shelves, lamps, and basically any other high object, making the bed a sort of cave area. The tray with the patients breakfast had been thrown across the room, and maple syrup was dripping from the tabletop and the blinds, which were clamped shut. The rest of the syrup was strewn all over the floor. Half of the lights in the room weren't giving light- two looked like they'd been broken by a heavy object, the others were blocked by newspapers held there with tape.

Nico pitied the janitor, but not enough to regret making the mess.

Will turned around to look at him. "Well? You're not in bed."

Nico felt like he'd been slapped. Just who _was _this guy? Will didn't even look nervous, like most people would when facing him. Instead, he looked the opposite- calm, relaxed, and totally in control. It was like the hospital was his home turf and he wasn't scared of anything to do with it. "_That's_ what you say? Don't you know what I can do?"

"I doubt you could do this again," Will waved at the mess. "Now, if you don't mind, _you need to go rest in bed now._"

Silence. Finally, as if his feet had a will of their own, Nico slowly walked to his bed and sat. Will observed him, nodding to himself. "Lie down, please. Here, I'll get your sheets."

Carefully as to not topple the lamp, Will unhooked the sheets and untangled the blankets, tossing them to Nico. He had half a mind to toss them right off again, but he wanted to see what Will would do now.

His caretaker grabbed the roll of tape that Nico had left lying around.

"Where's a stool?" Will asked, putting a line of tape around the syrupy areas of the floor.

Nobody replied.

"Um, hello?" Will turned towards the bed. "I know you're very busy being annoyed at me and all that, but you could _answer_."

Nico blinked. "What?"

"Where's the stool?" Will asked again, crossing his arms. "I don't really think of myself as a lazy person. Leaving all this for the janitor would be too cruel. So if you could tell me where the stool is, I'd really appreciate it."

"Uh..." Nico didn't know what to say. It was like Will could tear down all his barriers and turn his own devices against him. Why would Will want to talk to him, anyways? Didn't he know what Nico was here for?

Probably not, Nico thought bitterly. If he did, then he would have run away already. And he would run away, or if not, at least he would leave. Didn't they always? "It's in the bathroom."

"Seriously?" Will glanced at the bathroom. "Who put it there?"

"I did," Nico deadpanned. "I decided to put it to good use."

Will disappeared into the bathroom. "Because a stool in the toilet is incredibly useful."

"Of course. Are you stupid?"

"No," Will said calmly. "And that comment makes no sense. After all, what would you have done if you needed to go?"

"Went in _another _toilet?" Nico suggested.

"There _is_ no other toilet."

"There is in other people's rooms," Nico pointed out. "And what are you doing?"

The sound of rushing water echoed from the bathroom. "Washing the stool so I can use it to take off the newspapers."

Will reappeared in the doorway holding a dripping wet stool. "Do you have a towel anywhere? I need to dry this."

"Why should I tell you?" Nico countered. "You're not the boss of me."

"And you're not a whiny kindergardener," Will snapped. Nico was slightly impressed- he didn't think Will could get angry. "Yet you still act like one. Now will you kindly grow up and actually answer?"

"Find out yourself." Nico grumbled. To his surprise, Will didn't press harder. He probably sensed he already pushed Nico as far as he would go.

To Nico's disappointment, Will didn't give up and continued to search for the towels, which Nico had thrown under the bed while trashing his room. He didn't stop there, either, making sure to clean up the breakfast off the floor and picking up the tray. Fortunately, Will left the blinds untouched (After 30 minutes of arguing). At least Nico had won on _that_ one. However, he _did _call the janitor to take care of the rest of the mess, and when he left for his lunch shift, Nico was already determined to be as difficult as possible for his new caretaker.

Because Will was annoying. And he was determined, which made him even _more _annoying. Not to mention he had a habit of making Nico back down, and Nico did _not _like that. It was just so _wrong. _Why should Will even bother to stay near him? No one else did.

So yes, Nico di Angelo was going to be difficult. And Will had better quit soon, because Nico didn't do difficult second-class.

**Wow. Two chapters written in one day? I feel like this isn't supposed to be normal, even if this one was more of a filler chapter than anything else. Am _I_ sick? Thanks to everyone who faved or followed or reviewed. And speaking of reviews... REVIEW!**

**LAST EDITED: 10/02/15**


	3. The Family Bonds Of Angels

**Will's POV:**

Nico di Angelo.

That was his patient's name. Nico di Angelo.

Will sat at a table at a local café, sandwich in hand, staring at the info papers Katie had given him. He must have wished a thousand times he'd checked them before he went in-how could he have been so stupid?- and not have wondered the entire time what his patient's name was, and why he was there.

Now, for some reason, he seemed to be mesmerized by the name on the top of the page. _Nico di Angelo. _Italian for Nico of Angels. Some people might have found that ironic, Will mused, but he thought it fit Nico well, if that made any sense. It was like a sign that the heavens had sent telling Will that, no, your patient is not a complete asshole, he actually has some good in him. Not that Will had many doubts to begin with.

Taking a deep breath, Will scanned farther down the page.

Name: Nico di Angelo

Age: Fourteen

Height: Average*

Gender: Male

_Well, that one was obvious_, Will thought, but he continued reading nonetheless, skimming over some info and starting again in the middle of the page, until one section in particular caught his eye.

Reason For Hospitalization: Murder

* * *

"Welcome back from lunch break," Katie told him. "How was your day so far?"

"Pretty good," Will said casually. Katie looked surprised at his statement, but really, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Nico could have set Will's head on fire or something. "Isn't it visiting hour now?"

"Yup," Katie nodded. "Nico's cousins have come over, so they're in his room. You could go meet them."

"Should I?" Will asked. "I mean, is that allowed?"

"Not sure," Katie admitted. "Everyone just does it, since Chiron doesn't really mind. Nico's cousins won't either. They brought their friends, and they're all really cool, if not slightly weird. You can go if you want to."

"I'll go," Will said, and made his way towards the elevator. Truthfully, he was really glad that Nico had visitors. He didn't seem like the cuddly type, so Will hadn't been sure anyone would come. But it was good knowing Nico had people out there that cared for him. Maybe this would help cheer the kid up.

The elevator dinged, and Will stepped out on his floor. Laughs echoed so loudly along the hallway that Will was surprised that no one was telling the people creating the ruckus to quiet down.

Storming towards his room, he opened the door and stepped inside.

There were a bunch of teens hanging out in there, all talking extremely loudly as if they were the only ones in the world. The sight of it was enough to make fury bubble up in Will, and he unconsciously clenched his fists. "What are you _doing_?"

Everyone stopped chattering and looked at him as if they just realized he'd been standing there, which they probably had. A guy with sea-green eyes and black hair waved. "Hi!"

"Ignore him," Advised a blond with grey eyes. Despite her words, however, Will noticed her hand was intwined with Green-Eye's. "He's an idiot."

"I would think so!" Will snapped back to attention, feeling offended all over again. "He didn't answer my question. Scratch that, _none _of you answered my question!"

Scrawny-Boy (As Will had dubbed him upon first sight, _why _did he look so much like an elf, though?) raised his hand. "Um, what's your question again?"

"It was, 'What are you doing'?" Will repeated, gritting his teeth. "Who do you think you _are_? This is a hospital, not a party! You shouldn't be disrespecting the patients by yelling so loudly! Do you really think the people here don't have ears and can't hear you? Because it seems like to me that you're acting like you do!"

There was a beat of silence, which was broken by the person Will least expected to speak up for him.

"I never thought I would say this, but I agree with Will," Nico said. "At least someone here realizes how annoying you all are."

"Annoying? Us?" Green-Eyes feigned mock-surprise. Then he turned to Will. "Sorry for being so loud, it's a habit, I guess. I'm Percy, and you?"

"I'm Will," Will said, a bit shocked by Percy's sudden change of mood. Was the guy bipolar or something? _And why didn't he just read my name tag? _"And as long as you don't do it again, I'm cool. I probably overreacted anyways. I do that a lot when it comes to medical stuff, I'm kind of obsessed with it."

"Sounds like Annabeth," one of them said, and the rest laughed. "Except she's crazy about architecture."

"I am _not _obsessed!" Annabeth huffed. "I just like architecture is all. I mean, with the angles and calculations that's involved. I mean, the Great Wall of China-"

"Obsessed," A girl with electric-blue eyes whispered.

Everyone except Annabeth laughed at that.

"Anyways, I'm Thalia," The girl- presumably Thalia- continued. "The blond guy over there is my twin brother Jason-"

Jason waved.

"his girlfriend Piper-"

"That's me," Piper grinned.

"and the scrawny dude over there is Leo."

"Nice to-hey! I am _not _scrawny!" Leo complained. Again, everyone laughed.

Will smiled and sat down on a chair. These people had a sort of feel to them, a lighthearted friendship complete with teasing and insults. It was hard for him to stay mad.

* * *

_(Later)_

"Lets play a game," Thalia suggested.

"Okay," Nico agreed. "Lets play, everyone leaves. You play by leaving. First one out of the room wins!"

Thalia smacked him. "Humph. You could at least _act _grateful we came here to see you!"

Nico sniffed. "Please. Why would anyone want you here?" he joked. "I can't wait until you leave which is, what the _Hades_?"

"What?" Everyone swung around to stare at the clock in disbelief. How could have time passed so fast? It was already 2:55pm, five minutes away until visitation hour ended. Will felt his cheeks turn red. "This is all my fault. I should have been paying attention."

"We all should have been paying attention," Annabeth said. "Don't let yourself take all the blame. We can still get out of the hospital if we hurry."

Thalia, Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Piper, and Jason all scrambled to get out of the room as fast as they could. "Bye!"

"Bye," Nico and Will echoed. Will prayed that they would manage to get out of the hospital in time.

"So," Nico said. Will turned around. While his friends were there, he hadn't said anything to Will. He was starting to wonder if the guy had something against him, or if he just disliked people in general. Nico hadn't even been that warm to his cousins, so that might make sense. Will shook his head. Even if he wasn't a sociable person, Will had never done anything to him. Nico was just being moody. "Why were you here?"

"What?" Will was suddenly indignant. "Why couldn't I be? Katie said it was okay."

Nico scowled. "Oh, so everything Katie says is okay? Maybe you should stop breathing, then, just so you don't not do what _Katie says_."

"Do you not like me or something?" Will snapped. "Because it seems that way. You're always being rude to me for no reason."

"I don't like you. That's my reason."

"But why don't you like me? We just met this morning! I haven't done anything to you!"

Nico crossed his arms. "You exist. That's enough."

"You've got to be kidding," Will said, but it turns out that Nico wasn't. At least about the not liking Will part, because for the rest of the afternoon Nico spent his entire time making Will's life miserable. He kicked off his blankets 10 times, ran away more than eight, actually nearly set Will's head on fire, and had Will running a thousand different directions trying to clean up his messes. The only thing that kept Will going was the fact that this was his chance to fulfill his lives dream. Even so, quitting was incredibly tempting.

When his shift was over- _finally-_Will all but ran out the door.

*******I know it would never say this on a hospital document, but I didn't feel like making up one. Average was the only height I found while search for his height, so yeah. **

**On another note, thanks for all the favourites, follows, and reviews. You guys made me so happy~**

**I know this story seems like it has no plot, but it does, I promise. Now one of my reviewers said to not make the romance happen too fast. I'll try, but I'm not really sure what you mean by "too fast" so yeah. The reason Nico's in the hospital will be farther elaborated later, though I'm not sure when. Sometimes I change the timing for things while writing.**

**REVIEW!**

**LAST EDITED: ****24/03/15**


	4. Of Closets and Late Night Talks

**Nico's POV:**

"Where's the desert?" Nico frowned at his plate. Visiting hour was over, and now it was dinnertime. Had Will done this? The jerk! It would be just like him to interfere with Nico's diet, which was totally unfair! After all, Nico _had _gone to bed, hadn't he? Nico had half a mind to-

"I'm sorry," Lacy flushed. "The chef was going to make a lemon meringue pie, but someone robbed all the citrus at the local supermarket."

"They did _what_?" Of all things Nico had suspected, it hadn't been _that. _Sure, he liked lemons, oranges, and grapefruit, but they weren't that expensive, and not in an extremely high demand. Why would someone steal them? It made no sense.

"I know," Lacy agreed. "Totally random, right? But the chef couldn't get his order, so the supermarket refunded him the money. Unfortunately, it was too late to make something else, so there's no desert today."

Lacy put the tray by his bedside and left, as if afraid Nico would stick a knife in her back given half the chance. Nico felt disappointed, then felt angry for feeling disappointed. Why hold he care what others thought of him? He was used to being alone.

Sighing, Nico reached for his tray and ate. Dinner tasted blander than normal, probably because of the lack of sugar. Hospital food was already bad enough, why did the robbers have to make it even more intolerable?

Squeezing the last bite of his food down, Nico lay down and went to sleep.

* * *

_The building was painted pure black. Each hallway was practically identical. This place had definitely earned it's nickname of the Labyrinth, but that didn't stop Nico. He had to get to the end, had to get to the office of Mount Othrys. He didn't care it housed a murderer. He _had _to get there._

_Minos, Antaeus, Kronos himself- it didn't matter who died, as long as he knew his sister was safe._

_Panting for breath, he turned a corner just in time to see Bianca fall to the floor, Kronos standing behind her with a knife covered in blood._

_Grinning wickedly, he spun to face Nico and snarled words that rang repeatedly in Nico's head._

_"You're too late, Nico, your sister is dead!"_

* * *

Nico woke from his dream with a jerk.

Taking deep breaths, Nico tried to forget the image of Bianca lying on the floor, blood all over the back of her shirt, her eyes glassy...

Sure, he knew it hadn't been that way. The authorities said that Percy'd activated the bomb that Kronos was going to use to destroy them. He and some other kidnapped people had run, but while escaping, Bianca and Beckendorf had turned around to hold off some of Krono's employees. They hadn't made it out, but neither had Kronos. In there eyes, Percy was a hero.

Nico liked his cousin and all, and he knew that Percy had done his best to save everyone, but part of him wondered, _why couldn't Bianca have been saved, too?_

Nico shook his head furiously. _Don't think about it, don't think about it, go back to sleep._

Nico turned around to get into a more comfortable position, lying on his side to face the wall.

In the darkness, the white walls looked stark black.

Nico stiffened. It was like his dream all over again, _the identical hallways, all the colour of obsidian-_

Nico threw off his sheets. He couldn't sleep. He had to go somewhere.

Not outside. There was no way he could get past security without getting caught. But inside, in a dark, forgotten place that nobody would check... or at least, not until morning.

Stumbling out of bed, Nico left in search of a broom closet, or anywhere nobody would think to look.

* * *

He wasn't sure how much time had passed when he heard the sound of footsteps approach his room.

Nico sat up and rubbed his eyes. Darn it, had he fallen asleep? Stifling a yawn, Nico waited for the person to pass so he could go outside. Maybe there would be a clock he could check-?

Then the door flew open, and without thinking, Nico automatically punched the person who opened it.

"Ow!"

Nico nearly toppled over from surprise. What was Will doing here at this time of night? Or was it already morning? "Will?"

"_Nico_?" Will's voice was full of surprise and joy as he tackle-hugged the younger boy. "You're okay! I've been searching for you ever since Chiron called me at midnight!"

"You have? Why did you come after me?" Nico asked. "Why would anyone want to be woken up in the night to be told to search for me? Don't you know why I'm here? Didn't you read the files?"

"Of course I did," Will said. "I'm here anyways."

"Why?" Nico said again. "You know I've killed somebody. Why would you want to search for a person like that?"

"Because," Will snapped. "You don't seem like the type of person that does something with no reason. If you'd killed someone, it was because you had to and there was no other choice. You had your reasons, I'm sure. What they were, I don't know. Maybe I'll never know. But if you want to tell me, you can."

"Are you pulling the, 'I'll always be here for you' cliché?" Nico demanded. "Some false, 'You can tell me everything' stuff? Because you can't, you know. There aren't any guarantees in life except for death."

"True," Will admitted. "But no, I am not telling you those things. All I'm saying is... everyone has a life. Everyone has a story, their own version of their lives. Some of them get heard, some of them have people who sympathize. But some don't. Some stories people ignore, and are muffled by those who are heard. I don't want you to be like that, okay? So if you want- and only if you want, by the way- you can tell me about it. Or at least stop running off in the middle of the night to hide in closets, and we'll get along fine."

"I wasn't _running off_."

"Yeah, yeah," Will said. "Just stop, okay? My mom is the overprotective type, and if I keep getting late-night phone calls telling me to go somewhere she might call the police. Chiron told me they thought someone abducted you, because around when you disappeared the electricity went off. The backup generator kicked in, of course, but by then you were gone."

"Everyone thought I'd been kidnapped?" Nico's voice was full of disbelief. Sure, he could understand why, with the blackout and all, but wasn't that going a little _too _far? "Didn't anyone consider it might have been a coincidence?"

"I don't believe in coincidences," Will told him. "To me, they're fate in disguise."

"That's coming from the guy who's working in a hospital. Isn't it all facts and information here?"

"What? It's true." Will shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal. "I think it's easier to believe that nothing happens by chance, and there's always a reason for something, not just pure luck."

"Easier isn't always better," Nico countered.

"Maybe," Will said. "but maybe not. I'll keep believing anyways. Are you going to come out now? You have to stop hiding sometime, you know."

"I know," Nico snapped. Will's words could be interpreted two ways, it seemed. From the way he was putting it, it sounded like Will was either telling Nico to come out of the closet, or come out of his comfort zone and tell Will the story of why he was there. He might have won on the first one, but Nico wasn't ready to accomplish the second. At least, not yet. "I'll be there in a second."

**OMG. I LOVE YOU GUYS, SERIOUSLY. THIS STORY IS DOING SO WELL I WANNA CRY~**

**I'm not sure when I can have the fifth chapter up for you guys. Maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after that or the day after the day after that. I'm done most of it, (921 words precisely!) but the weekends are over so yeah, I might not update as much as I want to.**

**Weird thing? I'm almost done half of chapter 10 and more than half for eleven, which are the last two chapters for this story. (For now, I might change the number later) I've got everything planned out, so I guess that I wanted to write something for the end (Call me weird, I don't always write beginning to end, more like beginning-end-middle-end-beginning-middle-end).**

**REVIEW!**

**LAST EDITED: 24/03/15**


	5. Trouble At Home

**Will's POV:**

"Where were you?" His mother demanded. She'd been interrogating him for ages, convinced that he'd run off to some club with some girl or something. Sure, Will could understand why, but he was really getting tired of being endlessly pounded with questions all the time. At least his mom had waited until morning, though.

Will didn't regret going to search for Nico, but why couldn't the boy have chosen a more convenient time to run off? Will was not a night person, _at all_. Dragging himself out of bed had been exhausting, not to mention waking his mom up at night, because _every_ parent wants to be shook from sleep to find their teenage son telling them he had to go somewhere and that it was very important, but not tell him what he was doing! His mom had said no. Will had ignored her and ran outside, while she screamed at him to come back.

Gosh, it was a wonder he managed to leave at all.

"I was, uh..." Will had never hated his inability to lie more. "At the music centre..."

"The _music centre_? Why would you go there in the middle of the night? Are you sure you weren't off in bed with some girl?"

"_What_?" Will felt that his mother's imagination was a bit too, well, imaginative. "No!"

"Was there marijuana involved?"

"_No_! Mom, it wasn't anything like that!"

"Then what was it like?" His mom glared at him with dagger-like eyes. "Do you think I'll believe that the people at the centre called you and told you to come?"

"Um, yes?" Will's voice was unnaturally high. "They did, because, uh, someone went missing and, uh-"

"_Missing_?" His mom sounded hysterical. "Was the police involved? Did they _suspect _you?"

"Mom, I'm fifteen! I highly doubt anyone's going to suspect me of an kidnapping!"

"You never know with authorities! They _suspect everyone_! _What happened_?"

Part of Will wanted to tell her the truth just so she would shut up already and he could leave. The other part of him wanted to come up with a lie believable enough so he could get out of his house already. Really, he just wanted to get to the hospital, which was weird, considering that Nico seemed to hate him.

Well, not really hate him, Will supposed, after what happened last night, maybe the kid would be a bit friendlier?

Or maybe, the pessimistic side of him thought, he would be exactly the same.

Still, even if he was moody, Will preferred Nico to his mom any day. At least Nico didn't scream at him in the morning and accuse of illegal acts.

"Someone went missing," Will said again. "People thought he'd been kidnapped, but it turned out he fell asleep in a closet. They called me to ask it I'd seen him anywhere, andI'mgoingtobelateforworksooncanIpleasegonow?"

Will just couldn't hold his act together anymore- the end of his sentence came out in a rush of words. There were so many errors with his story that he was sure his mom would spot, he had to distract her! "Please, mom? I'm really almost late. Can you let me go now? For music?"

His mom glared at him for a second. Then two. Three. Will was sure that any minute now she was going to call him out and his lies would be discovered. But finally she stopped. "Fine. You can go. But don't think you're out of hot water yet, mister!"

Will didn't hear anything past go. He _had _to get to the hospital.

* * *

"You were almost late."

Will frowned at the younger boy, whose expression was unreadable. "Good morning to you too."

"It's a horrible morning, actually," Nico yawned. "I'm so not a daylight person."

"Seriously?" Will raised an eyebrow. "I love mornings! There's just something about waking up at the start of a bright new day and-"

Nico muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, 'gag me now'. "Figures. You seem like the kind of person who would wake up early just so you could see the sun rise."

"You don't do that?"

"Are you serious?" Nico looked baffled. "I repeat: not. A. Morning. Person. Key word: not. Thalia says I could be a vampire."

"Sounds like something she would say," Will smiled. "How is she?"

"Thalia? She's okay. Shut up."

Now it was Will's turn to look baffled. "What? Why?"

"Because this is stupid conversation," Nico muttered. "And I hate having stupid conversations in the morning. I'm going back to sleep-"

_Ring ring ring ring_

"-I swear, the world hates me."

Will glanced down at his phone. "Wait a minute, will you?"

Without waiting for Nico's answer, he ducked into the hallway. "Hello?"

"Will?" Will started. The voice on the other end was his mother, and she didn't sound happy. "Where are you?"

"Um, the music centre," Will lied. He thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye but dismissed it as nothing.

"Oh, really?" His mother's voice was like ice. "Then why aren't you here right now?"

Will gulped. "Here?" He definitely didn't like where this was going.

"Yes, here," His mother's words were like knives, piercing threw Will's already poor deception. "I came here to check up on you, but do you know what I found?"

_What did you find? _The words were on Will's lips but he just couldn't make his mouth say the words.

"I found, Will, _I found out that you weren't here at all_!" His mother was screaming now, the words coming threw the phone like it was on speaker. Several passerby glanced at him. Will wanted to crawl into a hole. "_And even worse, there'd never been a 'Will Solace' volunteering_!"

"I-"

"Why would you do this? Where have I gone wrong? I have to work hard every single day, practice every single day, but instead I find myself with a lazy, unmotivated son who finds it fit to _lie _to me!"

"I-" Will's throat was dry. "I'm not laz-"

"Excuses!" Josephine screeched. "This is all _excuses_! You are so much like your father! He made excuses too. He left us like the scumbag he is, and he left me with _you_! COME BACK HOME! RIGHT NOW!"

"But-"

"NO! YOU ARE COMING BACK HOME! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU'RE DOING, YOU ARE GROUNDED, YOUNG MAN! AND YOU ARE NEVER, I SAY _NEVER _GOING ANYWHERE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION! EVER! AGAIN!"

_beep beep beep_

Will pocketed his phone, obviously shaken. He had forgotten how scary his mom could be, as much of a sissy that made him sound. He toke a deep breath. What was he going to _do_?

There were two obvious choices. Either stay here, at least until the end of the day, and once his shift ended, go home. The other one was to do what his mom said and quit right now, then go home and face her wrath. Either way, he ended up going home and ended up grounded for life. Will prayed that, by some miracle, he could jump on a unicorn and go to Australia. Or at least have his mom calm down and have a sudden change of heart about this. Or wipe her memory of the entire day or something!

Will felt slightly dizzy with panic. Everything had been going good (Well, tolerable, anyways) up until now. Could things get any worse?

"What the Hades?"

Oh yes, yes it could.

**=_= Something is wrong with me. It is wrong to type this so fast. WHAT'S GOING ON?**

**I hope how fast I typed these chapters up (I mean, 5 chapters in what, 3 days? 0_0) makes up for however long it'll take me to type the sixth. I don't know why, but that's been the hardest so far and I'm only at, like, 300 words for that one. (For some reason, I always want to write the END first, like what the Hades is wrong with me?) I'll try to get it up before the end of the week...so don't kill me...**

**REVIEW!**

**LAST EDITED: 24/03/15**


	6. Story Time For Will And Nico

**Nico's POV:**

"What the Hades?" Nico wasn't sure what just happened. He hadn't meant to eavesdrop on Will, it'd just occurred somehow. He'd gotten out of bed to stretch (because really, Will would never have let him do that), and then he'd heard something really weird.

Will was talking to someone on the phone, and he sounded _nervous_.

It was hard to fathom those two things together. _Will. Nervous._

He'd always seemed like a pretty easygoing kind of guy, in Nico's mind. It was hard to imagine Will taking anything seriously (except maybe healing), much less being _scared _of anything. But here he was, sounding as if he was going to wet his pants. Just who was Will talking to?

Will turned around so fast that Nico backed up. And then he got angry with himself for backing up, even though Will looked like he wanted to strangle Nico. "Were you _eavesdropping _on me?"

"Um..." How was he supposed to answer that? "Uh, no?"

Note to self: Learn how to lie better under pressure.

"Then why are you standing there staring?"

"Um, uh...I'm not eavesdropping." His lie sounded fake even to Nico.

"Oh really?" Will snapped. "And why should I listen to a guy who's supposedly here for murder?"

The words were out of Nico's mouth before he could help them. "I didn't do it. I was framed."

Immediately, he cursed his lack of foresight. Wasn't that what _every_person say when they'd been accused of a crime? That had to be the most cliché thing Will had ever heard in his life. No way would Will believe him.

Said person looked like he was doing a mental calculation in his head. Apparently satisfied with what he heard, he said, "I believe you."

Nico blinked. "Wait, what?"

Will shrugged. "I said, I believe you. I don't know why, but I'm usually good at spotting when people are lying. I think it's an enhanced social ability or something. Anyways, your story makes sense. You don't seem like the type of person to kill someone."

"I-I don't?" Nico asked. Not that he didn't want to seem like that sort of person, but he guessed several people felt differently. "If only the authorities thought the same way."

"How did it happen, anyways?" Will said casually. "Who framed you?"

This was the point where, for most people, Nico would have told them that it was none of their business and to go away. But Will wasn't most people, he was...well, Nico didn't know who he was, but he felt like he could trust Will. That was a lot, coming from him. Besides, if it got Will's mind off the fact that he'd just been eavesdropped on and had been angry about it two seconds before, then it was worth it. "It's a long story."

"I have time." Will insisted.

Nico rolled his eyes. "I know you do, Solace. But I'm not going to announce the story to the entire hallway."

Actually, all the people were out of earshot, but Nico wasn't going to take any chances. Besides, he didn't like standing out in plain sight where everyone could see him and his patient cloths.

Will blinked. "How do you know my last name?"

"Oh I don't know," Nico said sarcastically. "Maybe it's because I have a pet unicorn who can read peoples' minds. Or maybe I'm inhumanly smart. Or maybe, just maybe, it says on your name tag and despite being dyslexic, I can read that."

"Oh..." Will looked sheepish, like he'd just noticed what Nico had pointed out. His cheeks were a light pink, which Nico found kinda cute- wait, what?

Nico shook his head to clear his thoughts. He hadn't slept well last night. He was tired and not thinking straight. That had to be it. "Anyways, do you want to come in?"

Will obliged, walking inside and closing the door quietly. Even if it probably wasn't purposeful, Nico appreciated that. He hated when anyone did things too loudly when all that extra noise was unnecessary. He himself usually did those things quietly- up to the point that people jumped when he supposedly 'materialized' behind them. One in particular even claimed he could be a ninja.

Oh, and that person was definitely not Thalia or anything.

Will sighed, and leaned across the wall. "So, you were going to explain to me...?"

"Oh, right." Nico began hastily. "Um, just how much do you know about my cousin?"

Will crossed his arms. "You're stalling."

"Sort of." Nico wondered where to begin. "Percy does have a lot to do with what I'm going to say. All of my cousins do, actually."

"I'm listening."

"Okay. So you remember last summer, when a lot of the newspapers were reporting about Kronos' death? And you know how Percy killed him?"

"Yeah. Does this have anything to do with what you're going to say?"

"A lot." Nico sighed. "Kronos had a thing with kidnapping children. There were rumours her tortured them, used them for experiments- the truth is, he basically used them as slaves. He had them working for him. One of the people her captured was my older sister, Bianca."

He heard Will inhale quickly, like he could't believe what he was hearing. "You have a sister?"

"_Had _a sister," Nico corrected, which left a bitter taste in his mouth. "I'll get to that later. After she disappeared, I was sure, so sure, that Kronos had captured her. But nobody would listen. The police had no interest in her case, it almost seemed like somebody didn't want them to investigate it."

"So you decided to investigate yourself." Will finished.

Nico nodded. "Yeah. Percy tried to talk me out of it, told me to leave things to the police, but I didn't. I searched for something-_anything_\- that would help me find my sister, and eventually found this guy named Minos Crete, who said he could help me."

Saying Minos' name made Nico want to puke, but he plunged onward. "Minos was a policeman, and he said that his boss, Atlas Titan, had been hushing up all the disappearances of missing children. Apparently, there had been a lot, but somehow, practically none of them made their way on to the newspapers. Minos said he could help me, but in exchange..."

Nico faltered. Will look troubled. "He wanted you to kill somebody?"

"No, nothing like that," Nico said. "Well, sort of. Minos wanted me to find an 'old friend' of his, called Daedalus. Minos claimed they were best buddies but had went out of touch after college, but he had personal reasons to assume Daedalus was in danger and wanted to help him. What a load of centaur dung."

"He lied? And _centaur dung_?"

"Obviously." Nico made a face. "I mean, for the lying part. The second part... inside joke. Our family has a thing for naming their kids after Greek Mythology people, so we made a joke out of it. You know how we say Hades instead of hell? Anyways, I believed Minos. I was really young and naïve and stupid- but the most important thing was that I was desperate, so desperate I would completely trust a stranger. Which just shows you how idiotic and gullible I was back then."

Will frowned. "I don't think that you should be so hard on your judgement. You'd just lost your sister. Of course you would be desperate for help and when ignored, you got angry. It's only natural you would have been grateful if someone offered their assistance, even if it was somebody sort of shady.

"Also," Will continued, "You **(A/N: Please read my A/N below, it would mean very much to me! Also, yes, I just shamelessly put this smack dab in the chapter so you would have to read it) **say that you were gullible like it's a _bad _thing. Sure, it can be dangerous, but it can also be a blessing, you know? To still be innocent enough that you believe that everything people say is the truth."

"Are you saying I'm cute and innocent?" Nico demanded, his cheeks hot.

"No," Will said, though it looked like he was trying not to laugh. "You are definitely not innocent. I'm saying that you were innocent-everyone is, in the beginning."

Nico tried to ignore the fact he hadn't said anything about the 'cute' matter. That wasn't important. "Anyways, long story short, I found Daedalus and told Minos where he was, but just then Percy disappeared. I got even more worried, if that was possible, and demanded that Minos help me out before he reunited with Daedalus. Minos said no. As you can probably imagine, I was furious. I did some snooping and found out that Daedalus was _not _Minos' buddy like I'd been led to believe. I wanted to warn him, so I went to his apartment- only to have Minos appear at the same time."

Nico took a deep breath. "Daedalus and Minos started fighting. I mostly tried to keep out of the way, since Minos had knife out and I didn't want to get stabbed with it. I almost called the police, but then I thought that maybe it wouldn't work, since Minos was an officer and I was just a kid. I mean, who would you believe?"

"You," Will answered without hesitation. "Let me guess. Minos ended up killing Daedalus and you got blamed?"

"Yeah," Nico said. "He told the police that Daedalus had been helping Kronos out- which he actually had been- and gave them proof. Then he told them that I had seen the news, which actually had been playing on Daedalus' television at the time, learned that my sister was dead, and killed Daedalus out of spite. Apparently, he'd been in the area and tried to stop me but it was too late."

"Seriously? And they believed that?" Will looked aghast.

"Yeah. Some of it, like the fact that I'd seen the news on Daedalus' television and learned that she was dead was true, but not the other parts. I tried to tell the officers I wasn't guilty, but Minos had friends in high places and I was pretty much on my own, which sucked."

"Didn't any of your cousins try to stand up for you?"

"They were all in the hospital. Percy was recovering from almost being killed in the explosion, Thalia and Jason had somehow managed to find out where he was being held- before the police, I might add- and had gone to look for him. Percy might have been the one to set off the bomb, but he couldn't have done it without their help."

"Wow, that's..." Will couldn't seem to find a word to describe it all. "_intense_."

"Yeah. I was declared legally insane and all that junk, while Minos skipped off into the sunlight." Nico said. "Well, not really. It was more of a temporary victory for him, because a week later he was found dead in his house. I think an old enemy caught up to him or something. Can't say I was too sad."

"I wouldn't have been," Will confessed, then checked the time. His jaw dropped. "It's fifteen minutes after the start of my lunch shift!"

"It is?" Nico looked flabbergasted. **(A/N: Long word! Yay for me!)**"Sorry. I didn't mean to hold you up or anything."

"It's fine." Will reached for the door. "I'll go grab something to eat. Later, Nico."

"Later." Nico echoed- but too late. The door was already closed. Nico sighed and flopped down on his bed. Why had he told Will the story? It had been a spur-on-the-moment thinking, but for some reason, it felt good to get it out.

Something went crunch.

Nico frowned, then sat up. Had something come from under the pillow? Lifting it up to check, Nico gaped.

Since when had that piece of paper been there?

**CLIFFHANGER, DON'T KILL MEEEEEEEEEEEE!**

**This chapter is dedicated to my awesome former teacher, who's birthday is today. If people would review and wish her a happy birthday, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!**

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRS. G!**


	7. Hasty Decisions

**Will's POV:**

Will set one foot out the door and was tackled by an onslaught of emotions.

Taking a deep breath, he stood there stock still and tried to think of something to do.

Right now, there were two obvious choices. Both of them sucked.

Sighing, Wil wondered how the hell- or Hades, he thought drily- Nico managed to distract him long enough for him to (however momentarily) forget about his situation. Then again, Nico's story was so stupendously unbelievable that Will may have decided that Nico really _was_ insane and just babbling, if not for the fact it was so stupendously unbelievable it couldn't be anything but the truth.

Strangely, thinking about Nico helped Will make his decision. If he went home now, his mother would probably ground him until kingdom come, and he'd never seen the black-haired boy again. Sure, Nico was slightly moody **(A/N:...Slightly? Seriously, Will? XD) **and was probably the most stubbornly annoying kid he'd ever met, but he wasn't _that _bad. He'd been through a lot. And now that he started to open up to Will, he wasn't going to let this chance go. At least he would get to say goodbye if he came back, whereas if he vanished and quit now, it would definitely be enough for Nico to never trust him again.

Also, he was hungry and his house was far away.

* * *

"I'm back." Will announced to the room as he walked in. "Miss me?"

Silence.

Will frowned. "Nico?"

"Mmmm?" Said boy was sitting on the bed staring intently at something that looked like a piece of paper. Will tensed. He didn't like the focused way Nico was staring at it, eyes filled with various conflicting emotions that Will couldn't name. Nico's hands were gripping the paper so tightly it was wrinkling, his knuckles white.

"What is that?" Will stepped forward and held his hand out. "Can I see?"

Nico hesitated. His grip loosened slightly, and Will could tell he was debating it. For some reason, he didn't seem to want to let the paper go.

"Fine." The word was barely audible, but Nico's actions pretty much explained what his reply was. He handed to note to Will.

Will smoothed out the edges of the paper and held it in front of him, reading it.

_Dear Nico di Angelo,_

_I know who you are, even if you don't know me._

_Listen to me when I say we can be friends. I have come thing in common with you._

_I have a grudge._

_And you do, too._

_If you ever felt any anger at Bianca's death, if you ever had any desire to get revenge at your sister's murderer... meet me behind the dumpsters at you local supermarket._

_I hope we understand each other._

_This is your one chance to pay back for all your sorrow, Nico. Remember that._

_Sincerely,_

_-G_

_P.S. If the police is alerted, you will lose your chance. People who could have __prevented your sister's death or vengeance?_

_Chose wisely. Come alone._

Will read it again. And again. And then he was going to go for another time, but just then Nico yanked the paper from him.

"Jeez," Nico said, his tone annoyed. "How long does it take you to read? You're even slower then me, and I'm dyslexic."

"So am I," Will countered, his face flushed. "I was just reading it multiple times to make sure I knew what it said."

"I don't know if you've noticed, but one time usually does the trick."

"Not when I'm trying to process... all that freaking information," Will sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "So... what are you going to do about it? Should I call the police?"

"What? No!" Nico look scandalized by the very idea. "By the River Styx, I know I'm never going to forgive the officers for Bianca's death. No _way_."

"But it's not their fault she died-"

"Really? Because I can think of a million ways they could have prevented it!" Nico's voice was starting to rise in volume. "They could have caught Kronos sooner, could have-"

"Shut up," Will's starting icy voice caught Nico off guard as the younger boy stared at him in shock. "That's not you speaking, it's your anger. It was just a suggestion, don't get so upset about it."

Nico glared at him, but Will shrugged it off and continued. "Speaking of which, what are you going to do about it, anyways?"

Nico stared at him as if he'd just lost his mind. "What do you mean, what am I going to do? Meet this person, obviously!"

Will's jaw dropped. "But that's _stupid_!"

"So?" Nico retorted. "You have to take risks in life! And this is definitely one I'm willing to take! I don't care what you say-I'm going."

"No!" Will insisted. "You're going to get yourself killed."

"I should never have told you about this," was Nico's answer. "Why did I think you would help?"

"I _am _trying to help! By stopping you!" Truthfully, Will felt strangely happy that Nico had trusted him enough to think that he would help, and slightly disappointed that (Obviously) he was losing that trust. But letting Nico go alone was unthinkable.

"Your idea of 'help', isn't very helpful," Nico snapped. "Ever since you've come here, all you've done is boss me around! Your annoying. I can't believe that Chiron even hired you- acting all cool and mighty towards me, but crying like a baby when someone calls? Gods, you're pathetic. I would tell you to run back to your mom, but you're such a wimp that she probably hates you so much that she's willing for you to spend you whole summer here so she won't have to look at you. I wouldn't be surprised if she's the one that called you earlier!"

Will sucked in a breath. Nico had gone too far and he knew it. He didn't exactly blame the guy, after all, Will was preventing him for avenging his sister and anybody would be mad. But anybody with actual sense would realize that this was a trap! This 'G' person was obviously using Nico's own feeling against him, but that didn't ease the thing of what Nico had said, or the look on Nico's face as he realized he'd guessed correctly.

Will turned and walked right back out the door.

* * *

_I'm such a crybaby, _Will thought glumly as he washed his face in the public restroom. Thankfully, it was empty- it would have been awkward if some random strangers had seen him cry- and the place had given him some time to calm down and relax for a bit.

He felt ashamed of how he'd stormed out after Nico's insults. They hadn't been_ that _bad, really, it was more of the shock of what Nico was saying that hurt him, and the reminder that he wasn't on the best of terms with his mom. Will also felt stung that Nico, even though angry, would say something like that.

Even if they'd bickered a lot, Will had thought they'd been on decent terms. After all, Nico had trusted him enough to tell him his story. But it seemed like that whenever he actually got the slightest bit near di Angelo's good side, something immediately happened that put him back at square one.

No matter how damaged their (kinda maybe sort of ish) friendship was, though, Will couldn't just leave because he'd let his emotions have the better of him. Chiron trusted him with this duty, he couldn't let him and himself down.

Sighing, Will made his way to room 704.

"I'm back." Again.

Silence. Again.

Will made a face. He was half-expecting Nico to be sitting on his bed and greet Will just as he had before, but the boy wasn't there.

In fact, Will couldn't see him anywhere in the room, and- was that a note?

Panic rising in his throat, Will hurriedly walked over and picked it up, a dreadful feeling in his stomach. The realization of what had happened dawned on Will all at once as the dreaded possibility turned out to be true. The note read:

_Sorry not sorry. -N_

Will's fist slammed down on the table and swore. How had he been such an idiot? He hadn't been thinking about Nico, had been selfishly only thinking about how the argument had effected _him. _Why hadn't he considered the fact that Nico would run?

Taking a deep breath, Will made the most ridiculous decision that he'd ever made in his life.

Yes, Will hadn't wanted Nico to go, because going alone was unthinkable.

And sure, two people going still was. But at least it was better.

Scribbling something on a piece of paper he found, Will left a note for Nico's cousins and dashed off towards the nearest supermarket.

**-_- Another cliffhanger. I am a horrible person. XD**

**I bet everyone knows who G is... it isn't incredibly hard to guess...**


	8. The Plan Is Discovered, Sort Of

**Nico's POV:**

_I'm an idiot._

That was the one thought running through his head as his supposed 'friend' has him tied up and thrown well, somewhere. He couldn't see out of the blindfold.

He hadn't even had a chance- he'd turned the corner, and immediately gotten jumped by two incredibly burly men. He'd thrown punches, desperately trying to escape, but in the end, they'd won.

Coming here had to be the stupidest thing Nico had ever done. Now he was kidnapped, and no one knew where'd he'd gone. Wait, that wasn't quite right. _Will _had known where he'd gone. Maybe it hadn't been such a stupid idea to tell him after all.

One of the captors pressed a handkerchief (Seriously, who even used those anymore?) soaked threw with some sweet smelling substance to his nose, and then everything went black.

* * *

_Ow. Ow. Ow, ow, and ow._

Nico winced as he woke up. His head felt like it was being pounded with a hammer, and his mouth felt like he'd been chewing wool. His body ached all over.

Groaning, Nico turned over to find that he was stuck in a small holding cell, with the only light being from the tiny window above. There was no furniture whatsoever. He didn't even have a straw mat to sleep on. Just cement, cement, and cement.

Joy.

A quick check showed that his hands were not tied, or his feet. No security camera was in sight. Whoever was holding him sure had a lot of confidence he wouldn't escape. Nico found that good and annoying at the same time. On one hand, he wasn't some defenceless kid, he_should _be worth tying up, right? On the other hand, it would definitely make escaping a whole lot easier.

Speaking of escape, this was his chance to prove his kidnapper wrong.

_You won't know what hit you, _Nico thought smugly. Now, as for an exit...?

Nico tried to stand up and was immediately hit by an onslaught of pain. Okay, maybe he needed to take it slow. But not too slow, obviously- it wasn't like he wanted to be trapped here forever. Maneuvering his arms beneath him, he slowly tried to push himself up. The first time he epically failed, but the second time he managed to get himself into a sitting position (Even if it did cause a stabbing headache...).

Rubbing his temple, Nico waited for a few minutes before attempting to stand up. Pushing his back against the wall, his leg muscles burned as they tried to support him.

Nico stood.

And fell two seconds later.

Nico let loose a torrent of choice words that his mother would definitely never have approved of. Though it made him feel better, it didn't change the fact that his situation was pretty much the same, except now his butt hurt. Great.

The second time, Nico actually managed to get up (and _stay _up). Slowly, using the wall for support, he made his way around the room once.

Something landed in his cell.

Nico snapped around only to find a towel. One sniff confirmed it was soaked in the same liquid that his kidnappers had used to knock him out. He cupped his hands in front of his nose and tried to breathe threw his mouth. It worked for a few seconds, but eventually the world started to fade away around him as he felt himself losing consciousness...

* * *

For the second time in a day (Or had a day passed already?), Nico woke up to a pounding headache. "Ow!"

A certain blond's head appeared above him, a worried frown on his face. "You okay?"

Nico blinked, wondering if he was seeing things. "_Will_?"

"Hi." Will raised a hand in greeting, like nothing was wrong with this scene. That was the last straw for Nico.

"The Hades?" He yelled, wincing when that made him feel like he'd just ran 20 kilometres without stopping. He lowered his voice. "_Why_ are you here? _When_ did you get here? _How_ did you get here? _Who_ brought you here? _What_ are you _doing_ here?"

"You might as well throw in '_where _are you doing here'," Will said. "Except that wouldn't make sense. More like where are we- which I don't think I know. I'm here because I followed you, obviously."

Nico half-wanted to strangle the boy, but then his last sentence registered and Nico's thoughts came to a halt. "You _what_?"

"Followed you," Will shrugged as if it was no big deal. "The note said come to the local supermarket, right? So I did, and for some reason, your captors knew I was following. They caught me, too."

"I wonder why," For the first time since he'd woken up, Nico observed Will's appearance thoroughly. "You're wearing all black. Which would be great for nighttime, but's completely useless in the daytime. And no offence, but I doubt you went about following me in the right way. Did you just run all the way there screaming my name?"

"Uh...I wore mask."

Nico face-palmed. "I'll take that as a yes and give you a bonus point for stupidity. You're hopeless. If someone is in trouble, you don't follow screaming. You, I don't know, call the authorities, call your friends, but you don't do that!"

Will gave Nico a dirty look. "Says the person who doesn't trust police. And didn't you go after your sister?"

"At least I wasn't that obvious about it!" Nico hissed, glaring. "And at least some policemen are competent enough to find their rear ends with a mirror. I'm not sure you can find your face with one."

Will flushed red. "I was _worried _okay?" He said, his tone softer. "With you gone, I felt useless. I don't like feeling useless. I was supposed to help you heal. But if you ran off, I couldn't."

Nico tried to intervene, but Will pushed on.

"Besides, I don't like not being able to heal," Will confessed. "Healing's the only thing I'm good at- if I can't do it, it makes me wonder what I _can_ do."

"A lot," Nico said, strangely confident that he was right. "You're amazing, Will. Not many people would miss me if I vanished, much less go after me."

"I'm sure some people would," Will argued. "Your cousins, for one. And their friends. And me. I'd miss you!"

"But that's only-" Nico paused. "Wait, what...?"

"_I _care," Will said hotly, blushing madly. "I mean, I would. Come after you. Obviously. Since I'm here and all that, so..."

"Um..." Nico wished Will hadn't said what he did. After all, the only reason he'd come for Nico was because it was his job to keep tabs on him, right? Nico tried to fight the sudden warm feeling in his chest. He was_Nico di Angelo, _not some girl that practically fainted whenever the guy she liked looked at her. Not that Nico _liked _Will or anything. That would be stupid. Incredibly stupid, dumb, and impossible, because Will would definitely never like him back. Or would he? Uh, why was he thinking about this sort of thing?

In desperation, he searched his mind for any other topic they could talk about, reaching a particular sentence Will had said that had been weirdly worded. _Wait a moment..._ "You think you don't know."

Will blinked. "Huh?"

"You said, 'I don't think I know' when I asked you where we were." Nico said, mind swirling. "So that means you have a guess."

"Well, sort of." Will shrugged. "Okay, how did they get you here?"

"What do you mean? They drugged me and hauled me off, obviously!"

"That's what I meant," said Will. "They drugged you because it was part of a plan. They meant to do that, since they knew you were coming. But me, on the other hand..."

"They didn't know," Nico said. "They weren't expecting someone to follow- so they didn't drug you?"

"Kinda. Not properly. I think they only brought enough for you. When they held the handkerchief to my nose, it only affected me for a while. But after that, I just closed my eyes and pretended to be unconscious."

"So you know where we are?" Nico leaned forward eagerly.

Will shook his head. "No, but I have an idea. When I came to, two men- our kidnappers, I think- were talking to this woman whom they called Arachne."

"Like the one from Greek Mythology?"

"Yeah, I guess," Will continued the story. "So she went up to them and said, 'Do you have the boy?'. You, I think, because then one of the guys said, 'Yes, we got him, but we also got another. Blond dude, was yelling the kid's name. We had no choice but to subdue him.'. Arachne wasn't pleased, said something about killing me off- I admit, that got me pretty scared for a second- but then one of the guys said, 'I think we should wait for Gaea's opinion on the matter. Better to check than to upset the Earth Mother'. Do you know what that meant?"

"Maybe," The wheels in Nico's head were turning. "Are you sure they said Gaea?"

"Yes. Do you know her?"

"No," Nico replied, though for some reason, the name triggered a reaction in him. "Unless you mean the one from Greek Mythology. She was the goddess of the earth and wife of Ouranos."

There was something else, he was sure. For some reason, the name was familiar to him in another way. He just couldn't place it...

"Wasn't Kronos also her kid?" Will asked. "I mean the Titan, not the real one. Well, then the girl named Arachne said something about-"

Will continued with what he'd heard, but Nico wasn't listening, not even when Will said the location he thought they were in. He could repeat it for Nico later. Right now, Nico's brain was in overdrive, taking memories he had and placing them together...

_A women wearing black from head to toe, and single tear on her cheek as she placed flowers on a grave-_

_Percy, retelling the story of the Kronos incident. "Kronos said that he liked my name, apparently his family also had a thing for Greek myths- like I'd care, who in Olympus cares if he's dead?"_

_Will, here with him now, saying, "Wasn't Kronos also her kid?"_

And just like that, the pieces clicked. The women at the gravesite. The Greek names. Kronos. Kronos, the son of the woman- no, _Gaea- _grieving over his death. A grudge that needed to be payed. His kidnapping.

"Will," Nico gasped. "I've got it. We have to leave _now_."

"What do you mean?" Will looked incredulous. "I know that! We have to get out of here before this 'Gaea' person hurts us!"

"She won't," Nico said. "Well, if I'm right, she'll kill us eventually- but she'll make it painless. The only one she'll hurt is Percy. Because he killed her son. Don't you get it? I'm bait, but I'm not the one she wants. Which is why we need to escape. Soon. Before she sends my cousin a ransom note and he shows up for his own funeral!"

And Percy would show up if Gaea claimed Nico's life was on the line. Nico didn't doubt that one bit. He knew his cousin. Percy would be selfless_\- _the _moron, _and come to save Nico's life.

But if that happened, he'd pay with his.

**Hi everyone!**

***Gets hit in the face with a pie***

**Ow...sorry for not updating in a while. I absolutely loathe this chapter,-it sucked. I am horrible at these sort of scenes. The only thing I can write is humour or romance, I swear. Hopefully the next chapter will be up sooner.**

**Readers: Hopefully?**

**Me: Hehehe, I'll try...**

***Gets hit in the face with a rotten banana***

***Throws hands up and runs away***

**DON'T KILL MEEEEEEEEEEEE!**


	9. Escape Attempt

I** AM SO, SO, SORRY ABOUT THE LATE UPDATE.**

**For some reason, I had like, 0% inspiration for this chapter. I knew what would happen (I have a plan) but for some reason I just couldn't manage to type it out.**

**Not to mention, something happened with the Internet and it didn't save, so I had to type a lot of it all over again. Don't worry, though,-my goal is to finish this story by the end of December! Hopefully I will!**

**Also, here's a funny story of something that happened while writing this: Turns out, I wrote 'The only light behind from the rafters above' last chapter...without first finding out what a rafter was. Epic fail, I know. It just sounded good.**

**Turns out rafters are the beams that support a roof,-which meant I either had to a) go back and edit that 'cause it interfered with my escape plan, or b) think of a new escape plan.**

**I'm actually writing this 5 seconds after I found that out, so I haven't decided yet. On one hand, I'm too lazy to edit. On the other land, I'm too lazy to think of something else. On the third hand, I am too lazy to think about this right now.**

**I made up my mind,-I edited the rafters part. I would have had to change it anyways, it interferes with the plot. Having rafters in my setting is kind of impossible...**

* * *

**Will's POV:**

This was, hands down, the most exciting week Will had ever had (Though he probably shouldn't use the word 'exciting'. That made it sound like it had been fun. The reality was more like: crazy, weird, and terrifying).

First, he'd gotten a job at Half-Blood Hospital.

Then, he discovered his patient was Nico di Angelo...who seemed bent on his life being living hell.

Next, Chiron had woken him up in the middle of a night to ask him to help search for Nico.

After that, his mom had discovered he'd been lying and he got into big trouble, though he'd learned more about Nico in the process.

And of course, who could forgot Nico getting the note, running off, and getting himself kidnapped?

All those events led up to Will being taken himself, which led to trying to escape.

_If someone had told me a week ago that this would all happen, I'd have never believed them, _Will thought, grimacing. Okay, not all of it had been bad- such as meeting Nico, er, he meant Nico and his friends- but the rest? Horrible. Why couldn't he and Nico have met in normal circumstances?

"Remember the plan?" Nico asked him. Will admired how Nico kept his calm so easily. If he was nervous, he wasn't showing it. Most people would have been bawling their eyes out by now. Will half felt like vomiting himself. But Nico kept his emotions in check and put the important things first. He took this whole, 'Gaea is using me as bait to attract my cousin' thing in a stride.

"Yup," Will said. Nico had been drilling it into him for the past three hours already, though Will didn't blame him. According to Nico, they only had one shot, since after one try it would be harder.

Will had told Nico his suspicion -that their captors were holding them underground. During the talk one of the burly dudes had mentioned the possibility of escape, but Arachne had shot the idea down, saying there was no way they could navigate the tunnels. And who had aboveground tunnels?

Nico had brushed off the news. Apparently, he was great at underground navigation, for some reason, so it wasn't a problem. But Will felt uneasy. He had a sneaking suspicion that there was something important that they were missing...

"Good," Nico's voice brought Will back from Theoryland and into reality. "Okay. Then lets start it."

Step One of the plan: Locate the exit.

That was already half-way done, thanks to Will, since he'd been conscious (well, sort of) when they'd brought him in, so he knew there was a hidden door disguised as part of the wall (What was this, some action movie?) though he'd forgotten which part.

Even if they had known, however, there were still more obstacles in their way. Mainly the fact that the door was locked, because what kind of kidnapper would leave the door open?

An amateur one, maybe. And this Gaea lady already proved she was no amateur.

Which brought them to Step Two.

Will was particularly proud of step two, mainly because he'd thought of it. Both of them agreed to the fact that they'd have to get the kidnappers to open the door somehow. And since Nico seemed to be the most valuable of the two, he was going to have to pretend to be sick.

Starting now.

To his credit, Nico was an amazing actor. He didn't pretend to be randomly hit with a sudden case of something and faint. He started slow- first coughing, than sneezing, than sitting down and not talking much like he didn't feel well. Will played his part, asking if he was okay in a concerned voice (Though Nico's acting was so good he almost_really_ was concerned).

Finally, Will pretended to have a breakdown and started screaming bloody murder. "He's going to die, he's going to die, _he's going to die_! Why is no one doing anything! Somebody! _Anybody_! Please help!"

At first, he felt kind of stupid, since it looked like he was talking to no one, but he continued ranting anyways, determined to make this work.

"He's sick, I tell you, _sick_! I should know, I'm a nurse! I can't believe you guys are doing nothing, your prisoner here that's about to _die, _and yet-"

Suddenly, a part of the wall slammed open and someone poked their head out of the door. "Gods! SHUT UP!"

Awkward silence.

The guard's eyes slowly widened, just realizing he made a stupid, absolutely dreadful mistake, but before he could do anything about it, Nico lunged at him and tackled him to the floor.

The whole thing was so quick Will barely registered it. Who would have suspected that Nico could be such a fighter? Especially against someone practically half his size. But somehow Nico was managing to hold his own, though only barely. The guard punched Nico in the stomach, causing Nico to retaliate by kicking the gun out of the man's hands.

The gun skidded across the floor and stopped...right in front of Will.

"Pick it up!" Nico yelled, trying desperately to hold the guard down, who was now struggling harder than ever before. "Hurry!"

Jolting to action, Will stooped and snatched the weapon up. Once the gun was in his hands, however, Will hesitated. What was he supposed to do, shoot the man? As much as Will disliked him, that seemed cruel. Besides, he was a healer, not a fighter. Will left that sort of thing to other people.

He brought the handle **(A/N: Not sure what it's called, searched it up but didn't get a good answer. Basically, the part of the gun that you hold. That's hard, isn't it?)** down to the man's head. Hard. The guard kneeled over and flopped onto the floor, unconscious.

Well, it was better than killing him, right?

"As impressive as that was, I think we really need to get going," Nico said tightly. He had gotten up from the floor where he and the guard had been wrestling a moment before. "Who knows how long we have before they discover we're gone?"

Will nodded, and followed Nico down the hallway.

* * *

Turns out, they barely had two minutes.

Nico had been leading the way, which Will was glad about. It wasn't like he was incompetent with directions or anything, but in an unknown territory, with no map? Useless, even if he had been semi-conscious when he'd been dragged here. Everything looked the same to him.

Nico, on the other hand, appeared as if he'd been in this situation a thousand times before, no even hesitating at intersections before plunging down one lane. He moved like a shadow, sleek and silent. It was thanks to this that they'd gotten quite far in such a short amount of time. Will just hoped they'd actually gotten closer to the exit instead of farther away from it.

"How much farther?" Will gasped.

"I don't know and shut up."

"What?"

"They might hear us," Nico explained, still running.

"I HEAR THEM! EVERYONE, THIS WAY!"

Nico said something very impolite. "Screw that, just run faster!"

Will picked up the pace, cursing his luck under his breath. His side throbbed -he'd never been much of the exercising type, and now he had a cramp. Nico, on the other hand, hadn't slowed one bit, which made Will determined to keep up. He wasn't going to drag Nico down, he wouldn't be the weak link.

Nico made another turn, and the sight of a door at the end of it made Will's hopes soar. Could that be...?

"The exit," Nico breathed, eyes wide with awe. Then they narrowed. "They're catching up!"

Footsteps echoed behind them, obviously guards in pursuit. Will seriously wished that they would trip and knock themselves out, even though that was highly unlikely. "Have to...run faster."

"I know," Nico said, trying to move his legs quicker. "Wait, what is that?"

"Huh?" Will tried to make out what Nico was looking at. In front of the door seemed to have a sign of some sort, though Will couldn't make out the writing. "What does it say?"

"I can't see from here." Neither could Will.

As they got closer, though, Will was able to make out the writing. The sign, which in addition to being covered with cartoon vegetables with smiling faces (_Creepy_, Will thought) had the words, 'Priapus's Fresh Vegetables and Other Garden Produce'. In other words, it was a sign advertising the local supermarket, the one that had been robbed earlier.

_They're keeping us in the basement of the grocer's?_

Will imagined the criminals being smuggled here in crates. Some of them were so big, it would be surprising if they hadn't forged the robbery just so they could have enough empty boxes for them.

Will froze for a second, and then kept moving, his mind scrambling to grasp something. An idea was forming in the back of his head, and if it was correct...

"Nico," Will said, "I need you to do me a favour."

"What?" Nico snapped, annoyed. "Why are you asking me this _now _of all times? Escape first, and then the favour!"

"No!" Will insisted. "We won't escape like this, they're catching up too fast. Nico, I need you to go hold them off."

"_What_?" Will winced inside, knowing what Nico was thinking -that he wanted Nico to sacrifice himself like Bianca sacrificed hers, that Will wanted Nico to die so that he could live. That Will was betraying him.

"Please," Will said, wishing with all his might that Nico would obey. "I can't explain now, we don't have the time! I'm not going to abandon you, so please, just _please, _trust me!"

One second passed. Two. Will prayed that Nico would listen, would believe him. Finally, when he'd just about given up hope, Nico suddenly reversed directions so that he began running to where the guards were. "You better make this up to me!"

"I will!" Will hollered back, not daring to slow. The door was so close now. _Just a little bit farther..._

He reached the door.

Will's hands shot out toward the handle. To his surprise, it turned easily. No lock. Huh, maybe Gaea wasn't such an expert after all. Could she have been over cocky?

He didn't linger on that long, though. Nico could only delay their kidnappers so long, he had to hurry.

Spinning around, Will desperately searched for a paper and pencil. In his hurry to stop Nico from coming here, he'd left the note from Gaea on the tabletop. If Nico's cousins had discovered his absence by now, surely they would have found it, right? And if they found the note, then they would hopefully come here. Hopefully.

And if they came, then they definitely needed to know what Will had discovered so that they could contact the police.

Unfortunately, there were no pencils in sight, and no paper, either. However, Will spotted a bucket of chalk that some kid had left on the pavement. That would work.

Kneeling down, Will used the chalk to quickly scribble a message in Morse Code. Once done, he dropped the chalk and dusted his hands off. He'd barely gotten the last bits off before the door slammed open and a bunch of burly dudes came out, eyes lighting up when they saw him. "There he is! Seize him!"

Two men grabbed Will's arms as he struggled to free himself. He didn't really have a chance, but if Will didn't do something, they would get suspicious. Another man stuffed a gag into Will's mouth to stop him from screaming, and then got a weird look in his eyes.

"Hey, what's that on the ground?"

Will's heart sped up. _Please don't erase it, please don't erase it..._

"Probably just some dumb doodles a kid made," The tallest one said dismissively. He seemed to be the leader. "No more stupid questions, Polybotes. Now come on, Gaea's waiting. She'll be happy to hear that the brats didn't escape. Now, move."

Will was dragged along with the people as they yanked him roughly down the hallway. He didn't dare look back, scared that the action would give the men a tip that the things on the ground weren't just 'dumb doodles'. His part was over. Now all that was left to do was to wait.

And hope that against all odds, Nico's friends would find it.

* * *

**VERY IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ: How would all of you feel if I decided to write a story from another series? Just asking. All my stories so far are either Percy Jackson or Kane Chronicles, and for a while now I wanted to write something from the anime Hetalia-Axis Powers (It's amazing, go check it out). But I know some people don't like it when an author writes things from multiple series, so I just wanted to ask your opinion.**

**LAST EDITED: 08/21/15**


	10. Super-sized McShizzle Man

**Hello everyone! It's nice to be updating a new chapter. :)**

**Just a heads up: I don't know why, but I've always been slightly conflicted about who Leo should be shipped with. I don't really like Caleo, though there's been some of it in one of my stories, and Leyna's okay, but nothing special. (To me) So here's the deal: No concrete shipping for Leo. There will be slight hints of Leyna in this chapter, though, and a couple of hints next chapter of Caleo. But nothing official. If you want to see romance, you're going to have to imagine it. If you want to focus on other things, be my guest and ignore the hints entirely.**

**Also, I apologize for the lack of Solangelo in this chapter. There will be a lot in the epilogue, though, so look forward to that.**

**Leo's POV:**

_Dear Perseus,_

_If you ever want to see your cousin again, you will come to the Dumpster's behind your local supermarket alone on August 1.  
_

_Any friends, adults, or police will result in your cousin's death._

_I hope we understand each other._

_-G_

"We have to do something," Thalia said for the 65th time that day.

The note had arrived earlier this morning, and nobody had done much since. The couldn't alert the police, because then Nico would be shot. But they couldn't just do nothing, either. This had resulted in all of them debating for ages but not actually doing anything productive.

"Like what?" Piper asked. "We don't know where they are. We don't know _who _they are. And most importantly, we don't know what they want."

"They want me," Percy said flatly. Leo jumped. Since receiving the message, Percy had been moping around. "They want me, and they're using Nico to get me. It's my fault he's captured. I should go."

"And then what?" Annabeth wheeled in on her boyfriend. "Percy, they won't honour their agreement. If you go, they'll kill both you _and _Nico. Do you think anyone could stand that? Do you think _I _could-" Her voice cracked.

"I agree with Annabeth," Jason said. "Going alone is suicidal."

"Doing nothing is suicidal," Percy snapped. "Getting help is suicidal! Everything here is suicidal, okay? Except staying here and doing nothing, but then Nico will _die_! I already lost his sister. I can't let him die- I owe that much to Bianca."

_Bianca._

Leo had never met the lady, but he'd heard the story. Percy and Bianca had both been kidnapped by the serial murderer Kronos. They'd attempted to escape, and only Percy had made it out. Wait a minute...

Leo stood up. "Eureka! I'm a genius! Guys, listen!"

"What, Leo?" Annabeth asked, sounding a bit annoyed.

"The Kronos Incident was in the newspapers, right?" Leo said excitedly, waving his arms around. "That means a lot of people know about you, Percy. What if the person who kidnapped Nico was a friend of Krono's, and they want revenge? Now, if they read the newspapers, they would know that Bianca died and could probably assume you feel guilty about it. Maybe they assumed that taking her brother would ignite some sort of protectiveness in you, and that you would come!"

A second of silence. Then two. Three.

"Leo," Piper said, "That is actually a half decent guess."

"I'm great at guessing!" Leo agreed. "Very useful on science tests! And history tests! And-"

"We get the point," Thalia snap. "You complete half of your tests by guessing."

"What, you don't?"

"Guys," Annabeth said, her tone of voice making it very clear that she expected attention. Everyone turned to look at her. "Lets stay on topic. As much as I hate to admit it, Leo has a point. I suggest we check it out."

Annabeth took out her favourite laptop and set it on the desk. Fingers flying over the keyboard, she speed-typed _Kronos Titan relatives _in Google's search engine and clicked the first result.

"What does it say?" Jason asked warily.

Annabeth hesitated, reading some of the article before answering tensely, "Well, first it gives a lot of information about Kronos himself. His birth date, place of birth, and stuff like that. But here-" She scrolled down, "It starts talking about his family and friends. Apparently, he had a lot of siblings."

"I remember that," said Percy, nodding slowly. "I think he and that Atlas guy were related. Didn't most of them end up in jail, or something?"

"They did," Annabeth confirmed. "The rest of his siblings -all females, by the way- Theia, Themis, Mnemosyne, Tethys, and Phoibe **(A/N: I left out Rhea because I imagine her as Krono's wife and that would be extremely awkward if they were siblings in modern day America. Though it's not really important to the plot)**didn't know about the whole thing, though his wife, Rhea, knew some parts. She got off with a smaller sentence, though, because she helped people escape in the end."

"I remember her," Thalia said. "She seemed nice."

"Wonder what she did to deserve Kronos, then," Leo muttered. "Guy's a psycho."

"Maybe she got brainwashed into marrying him," Piper suggested. "Or he threatened her with a gun."

"What about his parents, Annabeth?" Jason asked, steering the topic back on track. "You didn't mention them."

Annabeth scrolled down some more. "Lets see...His parents were Ouranos, an ex-con -apparently criminal mids run in the family- and... Gaea."

Everyone was silent. Leo didn't even have the heart to joke about the Greek names (Seriously. He liked mythology and all, but this was crossing the line. Who calls their kid Ouranos unless they wanted that person to get bullied to death?) like he normally would. Finally, Jason said, "So that's our culprit, then?"

"I wouldn't say _culprit, _since we don't know for sure," Annabeth replied. "But it's highly probable, considering the whole 'G' thing and all."

"What are we waiting for, then?" Percy snapped. "Nico's in danger. We need to find him, now!"

"Not so fast, Kelp Head," Thalia retorted. "We can't just go charging in there. It's crazy-"

"Every option is crazy!"

"Well then it's double crazy!" She yelled. "And I don't want my cousin to die!"

"I'm not going to-"

"SHUT UP!" Piper screamed, and they did. Leo gaped. He'd never seen his friend so angry. "Look, guys, this really isn't helping. At all. So here's what I suggest. We have until tomorrow to save Nico and Will. If this G woman really is Krono's mother, she probably already knows Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia. I say me, Leo, and Jason pretend to go grocery shopping to check out the area Gaea set for the meeting. It might give us a heads-up of what's going on, even the smallest clue could be helpful. Besides, it won't look weird since we usually walk back that way, anyways. Does that sound okay?"

"That's my girlfriend," Jason said proudly, staring at Piper in awe.

She blushed. "You're my boyfriend, you're supposed to say that."

"Well, I think it's good," Annabeth mused. "Makes sense. Alright, we'll do that."

"Great!" Leo cheered, pumping a fist in the air. "Amazing thinking, Beauty Queen! I give all the credit to me."

"And how, exactly, do you deserve the credit?" Thalia asked.

"'Cause I'm Leo, obviously," Leo said. Thalia opened her mouth to say something, no doubt going to praise his awesomeness, but Jason cleared his throat and she shut it.

"Um, guys? Maybe, you know, since we're doing Piper's plan and all, we should actually leave and do the plan?" he suggested.

"Right," Piper said sheepishly. "C'mon Leo, lets go."

"Be careful," Percy warned them. "Gaea's obviously dangerous, since she kidnapped my cousin. Make sure it isn't too obvious you're looking at the grocer's. Act normal. And make sure that you're on guard, but don't look like you're in guard. Don't give anything away! And-"

"Calm down, Water Boy," Leo said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Percy scowled at the nickname, given to him by Leo because of Percy's love of swimming. "We'll remember, no need to get so worked up when you're not even going."

"That's what bothering me," Percy muttered. He looked really stressed, and Leo felt for the guy. He'd been through a lot. His cousin had died at the hands of a crazy psychopath, and now they were looking for the guy's mother because his _other _cousin had gotten kidnapped. Leo made a mental note to look out for Jason -not that he didn't already, but if Percy lost another one of his few nice family members, the guy was going to die of guilt. And he'd look out for Nico, too, even if the pale-skinned boy had always secretly creeped him out a bit.

"C'mon guys, lets go," Piper called, and Leo turned around to exit the room, "Bye everyone!"

"Bye!"

"See you."

"Good luck!"

"Don't die!"

The last comment, made by Percy, sent shivers down Leo's spine. Somehow, despite the kidnapping, he had never really considered the possibility that someone would die on this 'scouting mission'. After all, Gaea wouldn't kill someone in broad daylight, right?

Right?

Leo tried to pretend he hadn't thought that, instead focusing on appearing normal, blurting out the first thing he thought of. "So, are you looking forward to the school year?"

Wait, what? Had the just said that? Okay, now that was just lame. And totally un-Leo like. This whole thing was messing with his head. Judging from the expressions on his friend's faces, he wasn't the only one who thought so.

Jason looked like he'd been slapped. "Leo? Did you just willingly talk about school?"

"Hey, don't look so shocked," Leo retorted. "I can be serious when I want to…ish. Anyhoo, aren't we supposed to, you know, appear normal? Normal kids talk about school and stuff, right?"

"But since when did we classify as normal kids?" Piper asked.

"True," Leo admitted. "Alright, so if we aren't going to talk about school -which I don't really mind, to tell you the truth- what are we going to talk about? I mean, it's not like we usually walk in silence."

They all proceeded to randomly tossed out topics on the table. Basketball, beaches, actors, cupcakes (Which made Leo really hungry), and movies. No matter what they discussed, though, Leo could never really concentrate on what they were discussing. His brain felt strangely alert, and he couldn't help wondering if Gaea's henchman were watching them, if they knew what his friends were up to, if someone was going to attack them at any minute. It got even worse when they reached the supermarket. Leo swore that he saw someone peeking out from behind the garbage bin. He wasn't the only one paranoid, either- despite the masks Jason and Piper were putting up, he could feel them stiffen as they got closer to the scene of Nico's kidnapping. Everyone was on edge, until-_  
_

"Jason?" A sixteen year-old girl with piercing black eyes and hair tied back in a single braid approached them. She looked surprised, like she hadn't expected him to be there.

"Reyna?" Jason's tone was friendly but slightly confused. Obviously, he had also not been expecting this. "Is that you?"

A grin split across her face, and she gave him a friendly punch on the arm. Piper scowled. "Who else would it be? Anyways," she stepped back a little. Leo noticed she also shot Piper a meaningful glance, and his friend relaxed, scowl instantly replaced with a tentative smile. "Aren't you going to introduce me? I know Piper already, but who are you?"

Reyna was obviously addressing him, but her voice had no disgust, just curiosity. Leo appreciated that. Most of the time, when it came to pretty girls, they talked to him as if he was something they'd just scraped off their shoe.

"Oh right," Jason looked sheepish. "Sorry about that. Leo, this is Reyna. She's an old friend of mine from my old school in San Francisco. Reyna, Leo is one of my best-friends here and a whiz with machines. I swear, the way he fixed my computer-"

"I get it, he's great with technology," Reyna teased. "Honestly Jason, you never change." Turning to Leo and Piper, she asked, "Has his skill with electronics improved or is he still hopeless?"

"Hey!" Jason looked offended, but Piper and Leo were outright laughing. It was no secret Jason wasn't the best when it came to machines. Leo could still remember how the guy had blown up a microwave at Percy's house. That had been _hilarious _(Though Sally begged to differ).

"They stayed the same, sadly," Leo told her. "I tried to tutor him, but-"

Suddenly, Piper stopped laughing, going quiet. Leo turned around, stopping mid-sentence. Jason asked, "What is it, Pip-"

He too, stopped talking.

Leo regretted thinking he was being too paranoid. When they'd met Reyna, they'd dropped their guards too low.

Turns out, there _had _been someone hiding behind the garbage bin after all.

Reyna frowned."Guys, what-?"

"Run!" Jason yelled, as a big burly dude charged at them. "You too, Reyna! Hurry!"

"What? Why? Jason Odysseus Grace, I swear-"

Leo grabbed her arm and yanked her away from the man, who was quickly gaining on them, not even dwelling on the fact that he'd just learned his friend's middle name, and it was _Odysseus, _of all things. "Just do it!"

"_Are all of you insane?!_"

"I'll explain this to you later!" Jason howled from in front of them. "For now, just run _faster_!"

Reyna picked up the pace, and Leo let go of her arm, mumbling a rushed apology. He hadn't felt this terrified since his mother's warehouse had burned down, killing her and almost doing the same to Leo...**(A/N: This is an AU, Leo had no crazy fire powers. Therefore, he can burn) **No, better not dwell on that now.

To distract himself from expanding more on that subject, he risked a quick glance back and immediately regretted it. The guy had obviously called for reinforcements, because now there were two of them. Both were so huge that people swerved to avoid them, screaming complaints and 'Watch where you're going!'s. They wasn't scared to plow into innocent bystanders, and to top it off, they were fast. On the other hand, his friends were not so intimidating, and had to continuously skirt around people exiting to store. At this rate, the henchmen were going to catch up to them, and then they'd be gone too, just like Nico.

Leo was _not _going to let that happen.

"Guys!" He yelled. "Go back to the others, I'll distract Thing 1 and 2!"

Piper screamed something back, probably about how that was a horrible idea and how she wasn't going to let that happen, but Leo ignored her and quickly reversed directions, turning left while the others ran forward. Waving his arms around madly, he hollered, "Hey, um, burly guys! Nothing to see over there! Come chase me instead!"

Nothing changed. He saw their eyes go over him, as if scanning whether or not he was worth dealing with. It took less than a second, and they didn't change their course.

Leo felt his blood boil. Okay, maybe he wasn't the most muscular guy, but give him a break! He could be vicious. He could be a worthwhile opponent. He wasn't just a skinny wimp that backed out of fights. He_could _hold those two off for his friends. No, he _would_.

Digging into his right pocket, Leo pulled out an sphere-shaped toy. Called the Archimedes Sphere, he'd made it himself, planning to use it to prank fellow students at Goode. Today, it'd have a much important purpose.

Adjusting a few wires, Leo pressed a button at the side, making it expand and basically form a little slingshot. Good, but he needed something to actually shoot...

Grabbing a bunch of rocks on the ground, Leo loaded the slingshot and released. The rock hit one of the men on the head, but besides a glare, Leo didn't really get any more attention.

He gritted his teeth. He needed something flashier.

This time searching his left pocket, he pulled out a yo-yo, a bunch of sticky notes, a string, an old candy cane, and...a box of matches. Leo gaped at that. Since when had he put that there? Ah well, it made things easier for him now. Fire was eye-catching, right?

Taking out a match, he hesitated. He could recall the..._accident_ too well, flames leaping as they swirled around the burning warehouse. Leo could practically feel the memory creep up to him. He thought about it every day, after all. _Fire was not something to be played with..._

But if he didn't light the match, the chance of his friends being captured was too great.

That did it. Nobody was going to harm his friends if he had anything to do with it! Leo grabbed half of the sticky notes and lit them. Then he proceeded to place it into the slingshot and aim.

_Steady, steady, there!_

He let go.

Leo held his breath, watching as the flaming clump of paper flew across the ground and hit...right on Thing 1's t-shirt, which promptly set on fire. Cursing, the dude hit the floor, rolling around to get rid of the flame. Without wasting any time, Leo grabbed some more sticky notes and did the same thing, except this time it hit Thing 2's pants. Thing 2 yelped and grabbed his behind -bad move, since now his hands were burned. Leo quickly used the same tactic over and over again until he ran out of paper. _Schist.__  
_

The guys, now not flaming, were slowly getting up from the floor where they'd been rolling like madman just seconds before. They were both facing him, and they didn't look happy.

_Double schist._

For once in his life, Leo did the logical thing. He turned and ran, henchman following.

He sprinted in random directions, zigzagging down streets and corners. As he ran on, it became blatantly clear that the two men -whoever they were -did not know New York as well as he did. They probably had just gotten here, but Leo didn't really care. All he cared about was that it gave him an advantage, so he made sure to take shortcuts, duck down alleyways they hadn't seen before, and head to crowded areas. The guys were in shape, though, and somehow always managed to find him whenever he tried to disappear.

Finally, Leo managed to make it across a road before they did, light flashing red as his feet hit the sidewalk. Cars poured onto the road, and his stalkers got stranded on the other side. Leo took his chance and made a break for it, high-tailing out of there as fast as his feet could take him.

Panting, Leo turned the corner and ducked behind a bush nearby. No sign of either men. He relaxed. Mission accomplished. Now all he had to do was walk back to the others, and-

"Who _are_ you, and why did you just destroy my plant?"

Leo turned slowly, coming face to face with a girl with caramel hair that smelled of cinnamon. Her hair was done in a braid, and her dark almond-shaped eyes were narrowed into a glare. He followed her gaze down to his feet, which were stepping on...damn it.

The Fates loved to torture him, didn't they?

**Sorry if Reyna was OOC. I tried to make her nice. Too many stories bash characters just because others ship that person with another person who they ship with another person. Too clarify that confusing explanation, I'll give you an example. Some people bash Calypso and Rachel because they ship Percabeth. I've read a lot of stories like that, and while I get why people do it, I prefer to just have the characters in character. You can get Percy and Annabeth together without making others total jerks, you know.**

**Anyways, this is turning out to be longer than I expected. Forget what I said earlier, according to my new plan, there will be 13 chapters. o_o I really hope I can have this done by January!**

**LAST EDITED: 08/21/15**


	11. Calypso, Hazel, and Frank

**MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!**

**And I am back with another chapter! Awesome! I apologize for the grammar mistakes people said I've been making. I don't have a Beta, and while I do proof read, sometime it's not enough.****  
**

**On another note, I read the past few chapters again. I was shocked by the stunning amount of dashes. WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS BEFORE? I overuse the dashes so much it's annoying. I promise I ****will try to stop doing using them too much, and once I'm done I'm going to go back and try to fix any errors I made. Thanks to Crackers414 for pointing out the dashes ****problem!**

**Now on with the chapter!**

**Leo's POV:**

Why did his life have to suck so much?

Leo tried to think of a reasonable answer. In the face of a hot teenager, however, that was a bit hard to pull off. Sure, she was an extremely angry-looking girl, but hot nonetheless. Not to mention the ideas of what he should say were totally random and weird.

_Hi, I'm Leo. My friends call me Repair Boy, but you can call me Supreme Commander!_

No.

_WASSUP?_

Now that was just weird.

_Can I have your number?_

Where had _that _thought come from?

Finally, Leo managed, "Um, I'm Leo. Leo Valdez. And, um, about your plant... it was an accident."

The girl did not look impressed. Why, Leo would never know. He was awesome! Okay, his reply to her question hadn't been totally amazing, but it was _something, _right? "Really. And are you going to pay for it?"

"_Pay for it_?" Leo exclaimed, shocked. "Why should I have to pay for it? Plants aren't _that _expensive, pay for it yourself! I'm kind of in the middle of something!"

As he said that, Leo looked around again, scanning the area for the guards.

She watched him and frowned. "Like what? Hide and seek?"

"_No_! This is life or death situation!"

The girl snorted. "Please, I doubt that if you don't win this game, you'd die."

Leo's insides went cold. Even though he knew that she had every right to think he was only joking, it was beginning to tick him off. This wasn't a game. Why wouldn't the girl just shut up?

He opened his mouth, ready to deliver the best insult in the history of insults... and then closed it.

"Speechless?" The girl crowed, sounding slightly surprised and incredibly smug. Obviously, she didn't think he would give up that easily. "Sorry you didn't like hearing the truth, Mr. Valdez, but-"

"WHERE IS HE?!" Footsteps pounded down the sidewalk as the burly men that Leo had distracted earlier dashed down the street. Leo froze for a second before realizing that if they saw him, he was screwed. He crouched down and tried to make himself smaller. Hopefully the shrub would cover him.

Meanwhile, the twin uglies had lowered their voices when they saw the girl. They glanced at each other before one of them walked up to her. "Excuse me, miss, but have you seen a boy anywhere?"

"A scrawny one," The other supplied, being smart enough to know that for a description, 'a boy' wasn't going to cut it. "With curly brown hair, elf-like features, and dark brown eyes."

Leo winced, partly because of the 'scrawny' thing, partly because he was waiting for the girl to turn him in. Why would she lie for a person she barely knew? He braced himself, preparing to run. Maybe if he sprinted fast enough, he could lose them again.

He was so preoccupied with his thoughts, he almost didn't hear the girl's reply.

"Sorry, I didn't," she said. "He might have gone done a different street. Why?"

"No reason," The smarter one said hastily. "Come on Otis, lets go."

He took off, with the other guard following.

The girl waited until they were out of sight and the sound of their footsteps had drifted away. Then she turned to Leo, and the look on her face made him gulp.

"Now," she said sweetly, a murderous look on her face, "You are going to come into my house, and _explain _what is going on."

He did.

Leo told her about the Kronos Incident, and what happened after. He told her about Gaea and Nico's kidnapping. He even told her about the ransom note and the scouting trip. From what he figured, he had nothing to lose. Surely nobody could hear them in her house? Also, it just felt so _good _to get it all out. This whole thing had been so crazy, it was really a relief to be able to tell someone about it. And who knows? Maybe she wouldn't think he was totally insane and help!

...Okay, not the last part. That was pretty far-fetched.

To his surprise, though, the girl didn't scoff or roll her eyes during his story. All she did was stare at him, a serious look forming on her face, and when he was done, she announced, "I knew something was up."

Leo blinked, wondering if he'd heard wrong. "What?"

"I mean, Grandmother had always been a bit of a nutcase, and she was really angry when Kronos died-" she rambled, making no sense at all.

"_What_?"

"-Sure, she was sad at first, but then she got this weird look in her eye, like she wanted to murder someone-"

"Okay, for the last time," Leo interrupted, holding his arms up in a T-shape as if to say, _time-out. _"_What_? 'Grandmother_'_? Murder? I think this is my turn to demand an explanation, lady!"

The girl sighed, looking as if she was dreading saying this. She stuck her hand out as if introducing herself, looked him right in the eye and said, "My name is Calypso Titan. My father is Atlas, and your cousin's kidnapper happens to be my another one of my extremely dysfunctional relatives."

* * *

The world had officially reached a new level of weird.

Calypso explained how her mother died when she was young, leaving her father to raise her. While she recounted that part of her story, her face went blank, as if she was trying to stop raging emotions inside her brain. She then quickly moved on, saying how Kronos had come to Atlas' house a while back, asking him for help with something. Calypso claimed she hadn't know anything about what her father was really helping with, and would have contacted the police is she had. Leo wasn't sure she was telling the truth, since Atlas was her father and all, but he decided to let it go. The judge had believed her enough to let her get off with complete innocence at her trial, anyways.

Leo sucked in a breath once she was done. "Anything else I should know? I'm half expecting Gaea to turn out to be an alien from way, way outer space trying to invade the world with rabbits now."

"I think your brain's in way, way outer space," Calypso grumbled, but Leo noticed she was trying to stifle a laugh. "I wouldn't put it past her, though. She can be-"

The doorbell rang, making Leo jump. Calypso ran to open the door. "Hazel! Frank! My gods, I almost forgot you two were coming!"

"Gee thanks," A Chinese boy stepped inside her house, kicking off his shoes as they entered. Leo had to make a conscious effort not to gawk, since that guy could pass for a mini-wrestler (Why wasn't he that buff? Honestly, life was unfair). He stopped sulking, however, when Mr. Muscle turned and looked at him. "Um, not to be rude, but who's he?"

"I'm Leo, and is she your girlfriend?" Leo asked, gesturing at the pretty African-American girl with golden eyes beside him.

Wrong question.

The aftermath was almost hysterical, with Golden-Eyes looked flustered and fanning herself while Mini-Wrestler turned into a tomato, cheeks reddening. Before any of them could reply, Calypso forced a laugh and stepped between them.

"Ignore him," she said, tossing Leo a dirty look when Hazel and Frank weren't looking. "He's terrible at making good first impressions."

"Hey!"

Calypso huffed. "What? It's true. Leo, these are my friends Hazel and Frank, who already know your name. I've known them since forever, and they've always been the most kind, loyal, and _trustworthy _people I've ever met."

She put an emphasize on 'trustworthy', giving him a look as if to say, _c__an I_?

"Wow," Frank said, sounding flattered. "Calypso...it's really awesome that you think so highly of us, but why are you looking at him like that...?"

Leo's reaction was different. "What? No way! I told you that Gaea said not to tell other people!"

"You told _me, _" Calypso retorted. "And besides, they aren't just 'other people'. They're my friends! They can help!"

"I don't want them to get involved in this!"

"Too bad!"

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute," Frank waved his arms around to get their attention. Leo thought he looked like a chicken. "Gaea? Isn't she your grandmother?"

Calypso gave Leo a glare that said, _l__et. Me. Tell. Them._

Leo puffed out his cheeks and sighed. "Fine. If Nico dies I'm blaming you."

"_What_?" Hazel asked.

"Sit down first," Calypso advised her and Frank. She then preceded to tell them what Leo had told her, while he observed their reactions. Hazel just sat there, nodding like a bobble-head at everything Calypso said, taking it all in. Frank's reaction was significantly more comical, eyes nearly popping out, jaw wide open. Seriously, Leo was sure that mouths weren't made to drop so low. His was practically grazing the floor.

"And that's basically what happened," Calypso finished. "Any questions?"

"I don't believe it," That was the first sentence out of Frank's mouth. "This is insane. Completely, utterly insane. Still, I've never known you to lie. And in a crazy way, it makes sense."

Hazel's eyes were wide, making the gold in them stand out even more. "I agree. We were just there, and something seemed up! A bunch of the staff seemed really worried about something. They even closed down early, I thought they were acting weird."

"Me too," Frank agreed. "Speaking of weird, I saw a bunch of drawings on the ground next to the area. Probably nothing, but all those random dots and dashes looked kinda odd."

Leo straightened. "Dots and dashes? Was it Morse Code?"

"How should I know?" said Frank, shrugging, obviously still a bit ticked at the 'girlfriend' comment. "I don't know Morse Code. It could have been, or it could have been random doodles a kid made. I don't think you should go back to see them, though. They'll recognize you for sure, and me and Hazel would look suspicious if we went back to look at them."

"Do you remember what it looks like?" Leo asked, a desperate edge in his voice. Maybe this was nothing, but his instincts told him otherwise. If Frank and Hazel couldn't remember, then what hope did he have? This could be a valuable clue!

"I don't, but Frank might," said Hazel, "He's got a good memory."

They all turned towards Frank, who swallowed. "Um... I think I might."

"Great!" exclaimed Leo, as he handed him a pencil and a piece of paper. "Write it down. Now."

"Um, I said I _might..._"

"Write it!"

"Okay, okay," Frank mumbled, scribbling down markings on paper. Every once and a while he would stop, as if trying to recall what it looked like. Whenever that happened, Leo prayed frantically that his 'good memory' would kick in and help. Eventually Frank finished and looked it over, scrutinizing it. Leo bounced up and down impatiently, which earned him some unusual looks from Hazel and Calypso. He ignored them, practically snatching the paper away from Frank when offered to him, decoding it.

The first word, supermarket, made sense. So did 'trapped, Will and Nico', 'and 'Gaea'. It was the last part that confused him, but when he thought about it a bit more, the whole thing made sense. He grinned. "I've got it! Will's amazing! Or Nico's amazing! Whoever wrote this is amazing! Not as much as me, but still! They've discovered Gaea's weakness!"

His three companion's heads snapped up. "Really?"

Leo relayed the message to them and explained his theory. Calypso nodded, the pieces of the puzzle coming together in her head. "Yes, that makes sense. I can't believe I didn't notice it sooner, but me and Gaea weren't really close. She preferred Kronos to my dad and didn't visit often."

"Good thing too," Leo joked. "With her around all the time, you might have grown up to be a jerk. As it is, you're semi-decent."

Calypso almost smiled, but Hazel cleared her throat. "There's still the problem of using her weakness against her."

"True," Frank said. "Don't you have some, Calypso?"

"Yeah," she said. "I'll go get them now. It might take some time, though, since my fridge broke down a while ago. Mr. Castellan was kind enough to let me put my groceries in his so they wouldn't rot until I got my new one, I'll have to go to his house to get them. Do you want to wait until I'm done or should I deliver them to you later?"

Leo considered both options. "Well, it might take some time, and I really should tell my friends where I am. Can you bring them to the supermarket?"

"Sure, when?"

"I'll give you a signal when we're leaving," Leo answered. What the signal would be, he didn't know. He'd think of something. "You'll know what it is. Now that that's settled, I should probably make my way back to Percy's house."

"Are you going to walk?" Hazel asked, sounding worried. "Because I don't think you should, they might spot you and continue the chase. Why don't me and Frank drive you instead?"

Calypso frowned. "But they might see him anyways."

"No problem," Frank said. "He can stay in the trunk."

"I'm going to stay in the _what_?"

"That's a great idea!" Calypso beamed. "Problem solved. Thanks guys! I'll get the stuff we need and meet you there. Bye!"

Hazel and Frank dragged him out of Calypso's house and practically threw him into the back of Frank's car. Leo felt like a hostage. "What if I die? I haven't got a seatbelt!"

"You'll be fine," Hazel reassured him. "Who knows? This might actually be fun! I always wanted to ride in the trunk when I was younger."

Leo was tempted to say that if she still wanted to see what it was like, they could switch places, but just then Frank chose to start the car. "Better duck down, Leo. We wouldn't want any of Gaea's minions seeing you."

The Chinese-Canadian sounded a little too pleased at the position Leo was in.

Grumbling, Leo did as Frank instructed. The ride to the others was terrible. Leo seriously suspected that Frank was trying to drive over every bump in their way just to torture him.

* * *

Many bumps and self-assurances from Leo that he was going to get revenge later, the car finally stopped. Leo couldn't get out quick enough, dashing up the stairs to Percy's apartment. Hazel and Frank followed him, the latter panting all the way and yelling at him to slow down.

Leo didn't, instead choosing to press the doorbell multiple times once he'd reached it. _Come on guys, open it already..._

The handle turned and the door swung open, revealing Piper's face. "Hello, who is this- LEO!" Eyes lighting up in realization, she promptly tackle-hugged him. "You're okay!"

Leo's friends took that as the cue to come running. Jason punched him in the arm. "That was for worrying us. You've got to be less selfless, you know."

"Dude, where were you?"

"You're an idiot, Valdez, you know that?"

"Hey, who are they?"

The last one was directed at Hazel and Frank, both of which just awkwardly standing there gazing at the scene. At Annabeth's question, everyone turned towards to look at them. Frank shuffled uncomfortably while Hazel forced a strained smile, waving.

"They," said Leo, "are my friends that I just met a while ago. Hazel, Frank, meet Percy, Jason, Thalia, Piper, Reyna, and Annabeth. And vice versa. Now lets all come into the house, get Percy's mom to make us cookies, and I'll tell you something very important I just discovered, along with my plan."

**And another cliffhanger! I am a horrible person, I know! 0.0 What is Gaea's weakness? And what is Leo's plan?**

**Sorry if anyone was OOC. And if this chapter was boring. It was mostly a filler, really...**

**Random Question: What did you guys get for Christmas? I got a $50 Indigo gift card and lip balm. I liked the gift card. The lip balm... -.-**

**If you want to give me a present for the holidays, review. If not, review anyways. Just review.**

**LAST EDITED: 08/22/15**


	12. ALL DA LADIES LUV LEO!

**NOTE: It's very important that you read this. I just realized that there was a major plot hole for the thing I had planned, because you can not grow the thing I was intending for her to grow in New York. Or at least, I don't think you can. So please note that it now says:**

**'"True," Frank said. "Don't you have some, Calypso?"**

**"Yeah," she said. "I'll go get them now. It might take some time, though, since my fridge broke down a while ago. Mr. Castellan was kind enough to let me put my groceries in his so they wouldn't rot until I got my new one, I'll have to go to his house to get them. Do you want to wait until I'm done or should I deliver them to you later?"'**

**Instead of what I wrote before. Sorry for whatever confusion this may cause!**

**Jason's POV:**

Leo was an idiot.

A seriously, completely idiotic idiot, if you could even reach that level of idiocy.

And yet, they were all humouring him.

**(A/N: Anyone who ignores author's notes at the beginning, please go read it. This is important, trust me)**

To be honest, though, Leo's idea made sense in a weird way. Like, it made sense, but it made so much sense that no one else could believe they didn't think about it before. It also made no sense, because it could be totally wrong and was just a guess anyways.

Jason didn't want to think about what would happen the guess turned out to be wrong.

"Nearly there." Leo said, ending the uneasy silence. Reyna walked beside him, glancing around cautiously. Jason still felt bad for dragging her into this. Sure, it hadn't been his fault exactly, but the two had been friends at Jupiter Academy last year, back when he still lived in San Francisco. He was pretty sure getting your friends involved in life threatening schemes wasn't really a good way to start a happy reunion.

"Are we just going to walk right up to them?" Frank looked nervous, and Jason didn't blame him. To be honest, he was kind of mad at Leo for dragging him and Hazel into this as well, even though secretly he appreciated the extra help.

"Well, it's not like we can actually sneak up on them," Annabeth answered. "There aren't much hiding places, and at least this way we'll show them we aren't scared."

"Or that we're extremely idiotic," Thalia muttered, and Jason shot her a look. She was fiddling with a frying pan, one of the few 'weapons' that they'd managed to get their hands on. Though weapons was probably to strong a word. 'Random household objects lying around that could actually do some damage but not kill anyone' was more like it.

Then of course, there was Leo's tools, that would be arriving with Calypso. Leo had called her earlier despite the risk that the lines were tapped, because this message, 'Signal' was so short that Gaea probably wouldn't understand. And even if she did, the walk to the grocer's was so short she wouldn't have much time to prepare, anyways. That is, if she wasn't already ready.

"Here we are," Percy muttered, looking ahead. "Brace yourselves."

Jason glanced where he was looking, body tensing. In his right hand he had a tennis racket and in his left, a jar that had been formerly full of brownies (Frank had eaten all the brownies with peach preserves, which Jason had found kind of weird, but at least he'd gotten gear out of it). Even if he'd gotten a better deal than Percy, (who was holding a pen and a Comfy Panda pillow pet) he didn't exactly feel completely safe.

Especially now that they were at their destination. Though it seemed oddly quiet...

"Why is there no one here?" Piper asked, pursing her lips. Jason stared at her. How could someone act worried but still look so gorgeous?

"They closed down early, remember?" Hazel said, gazing around. "It's kind of bad, though. Then it'll be easier to fight us without an audience."

"Well, at least no innocents will get hurt this way," Annabeth said. "Can you see where Will and Nico might be trapped?"

"No, and I don't see anyone else," there was a hint of worry in Frank's voice. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"I don't know," Reyna admitted. "Should we circle around? We might find an entrance."

No one had a better idea, so they did that.

* * *

Somehow, they ended up in a deserted alleyway. Well, it wasn't _totally_deserted- there were a bunch of garbage bins full of trash. The place smelled like rotten bananas and apples, which made Jason wince and try to breath through his mouth. Why couldn't garbage be chocolate scented?

"Is it just me, or would this be the perfect place for someone to ambush us?" Thalia said tensely, eyes darting around the area. "Seriously. In the movies, alleyways are always ambush places."

A high, girly laugh echoed behind them. "Smart girl. But you know, it's not just in the movies." Someone snapped their fingers. "Attack!"

In a flash, Thalia was on the ground with a burly man standing over her. Jason felt a rush of anger surge through him, and he brought the tennis racket down on his sister's attacker. "HEY!"

The man spun around, hand reaching for a gun strapped around his waist. Jason grabbed his arm, trying to prevent him from grabbing it. The gun fell to the floor, as Jason and the guard (Porphyrion, according to his name tag) wrestled for control. Around them, a battle raged, as his friends tried to hold their own against the trained men.

Occasionally, the woman who had first spoken (presumably Gaea) smiled peacefully and gave orders to the guards. Jason hated that smile. But whenever someone from his team got too close to her, she'd wave her hand and the guards would fight twice as hard so that his friends would have to back off.

Suddenly, Leo broke away from them and ran toward the opening of the alley, where a girl was climbing out of a car holding a plastic bag. The driver, a middle-aged man who blond hair and blue eyes looked shocked at the scene before him, yelling after the girl as she handed the sack to Leo.

Jason watched as his friend grasped the bag in his hand and charged toward Gaea screaming, "ALL DA LADIES LUV LEO!"

"What?" Gaea looked as surprised as everyone felt. As serious as this situation was, Jason half wanted to back away slowly and claim they didn't know each other. Why couldn't Leo have picked a more normal battle-cry? Or at least one that made more sense?

On the other hand, Leo made no sense.

The giant Jason had been grappling with a moment before, Porphyrion, was the first to recover. He shoved Jason away from him, the momentum making him stumble back and crash into a garbage bin. Jason's head hit the hard plastic surface and became momentarily disoriented. Out of the corner of his eye, Jason saw Porphyrion rush towards his his friend, holding up his fists to punch him. Before he got there, however, Thalia tackled him to the ground.

As dizzy as he was, Jason couldn't help but feel a rush of pride. _That's my sister. You go, Thalia!_

Leo dodged the two rolling on the ground and ran up to Gaea, who still looked shocked. He thrust his hand into the bag and pulled out a lemon, practically ripped off some of it's skin and shoved the fruit into Gaea's face, squeezing it hard so that juice came out.

Gaea stared at it blankly for a moment before collapsing. Jason blinked, stumbling to his feet. Yup, still out cold. A wave of relief washed over him. _Thank the Gods Leo was right._

From the looks on the guards faces, though, they were having opposite thoughts. Porphyrion was staring at the ground where Gaea was crumpled in a heap with wide eyes. Thalia took advantage of this, finally flipping him onto his back and pinned him down. Jason ran to help her keep him there, while Frank grabbed the lid of one of the bins and slammed it over another guard's***** head. Percy then proceeded to use the same strategy with the man he'd been grappling with while Frank looked at him indignantly. "Do you think I can charge you for copyright for that?"

"No, I don't think so," Percy said, "Now lets go save my cousin!"

"What the Hades happened here?" They all turned to see Nico and Will gaping at the damage before them. Nico was limping slightly, leaning on Will to balance himself. Will has his arm around Nico's waist to support him, and Jason saw Piper hold in a squeal at that. Showing her inner matchmaker, he supposed. Jason and Percy exchanged looks, like, _I'm going to be the best man at my cousin's wedding._

_No, I am._

_In your dreams._

_What about two best mans?_

_I doubt that's possible, but sure!_

The silent conversation stopped when the sound of sirens abruptly pierced the air. Everyone looked at each other, trying to figure out who had called the police, all eyes making there way to Mr. Castellan. He coughed awkwardly. "I thought you guys might need help. No offence, but the situation didn't seem like something you could handle on your own."

Nico looked angry, but just as he opened his mouth to speak his face contorted in pain. "Damn...my leg."

"Are you okay?" Will's voice was laced with anxiety. He turned to Mr. Castellan. "You called an ambulance, too, right?"

"Of course."

* * *

They arrived two minutes later.

Three police cars and one ambulance stopped at the front of the alleyway. Will's eyes lit up once they saw the ambulance. "Finally! Nico, you're getting straight on that, you hear me?"

"Yessir," Nico muttered, a blush creeping on to his face. "No need to overreact so much."

"Come to think of it, how did you get that injury, anyways?" Percy asked. "And how did you guys escape?"

"Long story, we-" Nico began, but just then the officers got out of their cars and he stopped. Everyone turned to look at them.

"Alright, if this was a prank call, I'm gonna throw you lot in jail for wasting my time." The man who spoke was super buff. He wore a police uniform with a bulletproof vest and wraparound sunglasses, as well as an iron padlock necklace.

Jason had never seen him before, but from the look on Percy's face, he had. "Ares."

"Percy," Ares mimicked his tone in a high voice. Jason saw his cousin's hands clench into fists. "Fancy seeing you here."

His eyes scanned the scene before him, and he said, "Alright. Men, hold down the burly guards in the uniforms. Get the unconscious woman onto a stretcher, and same with the boy."

The last remark was directed at Nico, and Will was more than happy to help him into the ambulance. He tried to get on too, but Ares held an arm out to stop him. "I said boy, not boys. You're obviously not seriously injured, I need you to stay here."

Will looked at Nico desperately, who made a gesture like, _do what he says._ Will did, and the ambulance drove off.

Ares waited until the ambulance had driven out of sight, then turned to Percy._ "_May I ask how this happened? Knowing you, it was all your fault."

Percy looked outraged. Jason seriously thought that Percy was going to punch Ares for a moment, but then Annabeth stepped up and gave her boyfriend a look that kept him in place. "It's kind of a long story."

She then launched into an explanation of this whole fiasco, from the beginning to the present. Jason noticed that Mr. Castellan looked more startled with every word, while the others just looked kind of bored. Calypso had obviously not filled him in before asking for a ride.

The two groups toke turns telling their stories from Nico's kidnapping. Leo explained how he had met Calypso, and how Frank had memorized a Morse Code message, ("_My _Morse Code message." Will had bragged proudly). Leo had solved the meaning of it. _Supermarket, trapped Will and Nico. Gaea. No Citrus._

No citrus. Priapus's Fresh Vegetables and Other Garden Produce had been robbed just days before of all it's grapefruits, oranges, limes, and lemons. Jason vaguely remembered hearing about it in the news and thinking that it had been odd. Who in their right mind would steal fruit?

Apparently, the answer was Gaea (Even though she wasn't very right in the mind).

Leo had admitted he also thought it was strange at first. "But then I thought about it, and the fact that the store had been robbed so close to the kidnapping. The day before, I think. At first, I brushed it off, thinking that it was probably a coincidence. But if Gaea's headquarters were there, then they must have known about it, and might even have staged the whole thing."

"Exactly," Will said, grinning. "And if they'd done it, why? What motive could they possibly have? For some reason, I kept thinking about one of my mom's friends, an allergist**. Once when she came over for dinner, she started talking to me about anaphylaxis, which is when a severe reaction develops immediately after being exposed to an allergen. I remembered it because my mom got really mad at her for teaching me about medical stuff."

"So basically, you guessed she was allergic?" Ares sounded doubtful. "That was a big risk, you know."

"Not to mention that if you knew, then you also knew the potential danger that could place her life in." Another one of them added. Leo and Will paled.

"Um-"

"Oh, lay off already!" Piper said, stepping between her friends and the officers. Clearing her throat, she began to reason with them in more persuasive voice. "It was in self-defence, right? If they hadn't, who knows what could have happened? Gaea was trying to murder them- but if you don't believe us, we can give you to ransom notes as proof."

Ares frowned, as if thinking about it. "Perhaps you're right. Just in case, you should all give us your addresses and phone numbers, so we can contact you in the morning. I'll see what the higher ups say, and if it becomes something big, you might have to take this into court. But I don't think that will happen."

Each other them took turns telling the officer where they lived, including Mr. Castellan. Piper pulled Leo and Will back and assured them that if they had to go to court, she'd get her father's defence attorney to argue their case.

"And he's the best money can buy," she said.

Meanwhile, Calypso was apologizing continuously to Mr. Castellan for not telling him what was going on and getting him involved with the police. He assured her it was fine, and he'd rather tell an officer his name then see one of her friends die, anyways.

"So," Ares said, turing to Will. "How did you guys escape?"

"A mouse, a rock, and a shirt," Will deadpanned. "Also, screaming."

Ares gazed at him blankly. "You can tell me the full story in the morning. Remember, you guys aren't totally off the hook. The media might get involved- it's hard to cover up something as big as this."

"Great," Percy muttered. "Reporters."

Will looked concerned. "They can't be _that_ bad."

"Trust me, they can," Percy shuddered, his voice dropping to a whisper. "_They're like mosquitoes._"

"For now, though," Ares said, ignoring the two boys, "You should all leave and get a good night's rest. You'll need it."

He walked away, leaving them all standing there. Will coughed. "So we do we go home now? Because I wanted to go visit Nico at the hospital."

"Shouldn't you tell your mom what happened, though?" Percy asked, and Will shrugged uncomfortably.

"I guess. But-"

Annabeth put her hand on Will's shoulder. "Go home and tell her what happened. You were missing for days, you owe her that much. Nico will understand, trust me, and you can always go see him right after."

"I'll drive you all," Mr. Castellan offered, and nobody argued. They all boarded his vehicle, and the car pulled out of where it had been parked.

Finally, they could all go home.

* * *

**Sorry if this chapter sucked. I did not like it at all. Also, sorry if it made no sense. Yes, yes, I know. Citrus allergy. Stupid way to defeat someone. But one of the staff members at my school is _deathly _(No joke) allergic to citrus, so I was like, oh, I'll make Gaea allergic to it, too! That's a wonderful idea! (Translation: It is a stupid idea, but I was too lazy to think of anything else) Allergies can happen right after the person is exposed to whatever they're allergic to, though, so it made some sense. Also, some people are allergic to the smell, so that's why Gaea had a reaction without eating the lemon. Reactions can be mild or severe. Guess which one it was for her.**

***This is Alcyoneus (the bane of Hades), if you didn't guess. Ir's not really important, though.**

**** An allergist is someone who specializes in treating allergies. Hence the name.**

**Now for the Epilogue! Time to tie up some loose ends...A.K.A. write more Solangelo. XD**

**REVIEW!**

**LAST EDITED: 08/22/15**


	13. Epilogue

**Okay. Can all of you guys put your arms around your computer and pretend I'm giving you a virtual hug? I don't know how else to thank you all for sticking with me for all this time. This is my first completed story that is not a one-shot.**

**I AM SO HAPPY! YAY! I MET MY GOAL! (Even if it was last minute! XD)**

**Though I probably won't write much for fan fiction in January, (I'll still update Dear Mortals, though, promise) because I'm entering these writing competitions and I need to get my pieces ready for those.**

**NOW ENJOY THE FINAL CHAPTER!**

**Nico's POV:**

_(One month later)_

"I'm so glad all the hype has died down," Piper said as she carried the picnic basket, hand in hand with Jason.

"Don't like being in the newspapers, Beauty Queen?" Leo teased.

"Don't call me _Beauty Queen_," Piper snapped. "And yes, I don't. Besides, it was mostly about you and your 'brilliant' plan, anyways."

"Technically, it was my plan," Will cut in.

"Whatever," Leo said, and everyone laughed.

"But seriously," Percy said. "Citrus? I mean, when you told us that, Leo, I thought your lunch must have been contaminated with magic mushrooms. Seriously, _citrus._ I still can't believe that we defeated a psychopath by taking advantage of her citrus allergy. We should have yelled, 'Death by lemonade!'"

More laughter.

"Hey, it worked," Leo said. "So don't go criticizing my idea."

"It was my idea."

Leo pouted. "Shut up, Solace. Let me take credit for one measly thing, alright?"

Nico hung near the back of the group, trying to favour his good leg. The wound had healed, but it still hurt sometimes when he was running. The only reason he wasn't staying home was because his cousins had practically dragged him here.

After he'd gotten out of the hospital, he'd heard the rest of the story, along with what had happened to everyone. The citrus hadn't killed Gaea, however, it _had _put her into a coma. The police had gone after the escaping guards and had caught all of them (Thankfully).

Otis, one of the guys that had been chasing Leo, confirmed Leo's theory of revenge. He said that Kronos had been Gaea's favourite son, and how hard the blow had been when he died. Gaea had went to her older brother, Tartarus, who (true to his name) was a pit of evil that had contacts in the criminal world. Tartarus had recommended them to Gaea, who then in turn offered them this job for a truckload of money. They'd agreed, and the rest was history.

Otis had also confirmed the allergy theory. Gaea had told the guards to take them away so they couldn't interfere with the plan. Even if people didn't know about her weakness, she didn't want to take the risk that someone would have some citrus by chance. There were other grocery stores, but none of them were that close.

"Gaea didn't do much but stay behind and give instructions anyways," Otis had said. "So she thought it was unnecessary. I don't think she counted on someone already having them, even if she did, there was no way we could rob everyone of citrus if we wanted to."

Priapus, the owner of the grocery store, had willingly lent out his basement for their headquarters. He had an old grudge with Poseidon, Percy's father, and had wanted payback*****.

Nico personally thought that was a sick way to get payback at someone. Who hates someone's dad and decides to try and murder the dad's kid? No, that wasn't messed up at all. Even Ares looked like he disapproved of that, and he loathed Percy.

Fortunately, the police had intercepted Priapus while he'd been trying to escape out the back door (Seriously. How lame was that?). He was also now in jail. Leo and Will weren't charged, thanks to a lot of arguing and a couple of calls from Piper's father, Tristan McLean (Will had taken the true identity of Piper's father calmly enough, though he'd been a little shocked at first).

The only criminal involved with this who'd escaped was probably Tatarus. Gaea's brother was no stranger to the police, having played a part in a ton of illegal doings. No one had ever caught him before, however, but apparently helping your sister attempt to murder an adolescent was so bad that now the police wanted to punch him even more.

Now they were looking for him more vigorously than ever.

One good thing that had come out of the whole kidnapping episode was that he'd grown a little closer to everyone. Except for maybe Will. He and Will hadn't talked since they'd escaped- though he wasn't sure how he felt about that. Mostly he felt disappointed, then angry at himself for feeling disappointed. It wasn't like he was _friends _with Will or anything.

But they'd been held captive together, tried to escape together. Nico had told Will what happened with Minos, and countless other things he'd never told anyone before. Besides, Will had come looking for Nico_twice,_ once when he ran off into the closet, the other time when he'd been abducted by Gaea. Surely that had to mean _something_, right?

And as much as Nico loathed to admit it, as much as he was trying to convince himself otherwise, he was really starting to miss the blond-haired boy and their somewhat confusing relationship.

Speaking of Will, he was heading Nico's way now, and he didn't look happy.

Will walked up to Nico and focused him with a look that said, _I have something to tell you._

"Are you trying to ignore me or something?" Will deadpanned.

"What?" Nico looked indignant. "Why would you think that?"

"Because!" Will snapped. "Ever since we got back, you haven't been contacting me. No emails, no phone calls, _nothing_. You could have asked someone to take a message. Why didn't you?"

"Wait a minute," Nico said, "I've think you've got it all backwards. Aren't you the one that's been ignoring _me_? I mean, you'd have a good reason to. I mean-"

"What do you mean, good reason?" Will demanded. " I admit I haven't been seeing you lately, but it's because Apollo's my father."

Nico opened his mouth to state all the reasons why Will would not want to hang out with him. The he did a double-take on the last part. "Wait, what? Who's your what?"

"Apollo, the head doctor at Half-Blood Hospital," Will said. "You know him, right? He was one of the people who arrived with the ambulance. Anyways, you remember after the battle, when they took you to the hospital, and I came to visit?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, Apollo said he had a hunch about it, so he researched me and found out that my mom, Josephine, was the same one that he'd been high-school sweethearts with in high school. Apparently, she'd had a baby but never told him. They're fighting over who gets custody of me now."

"Seriously? That sucks." Nico himself didn't have the best relationship with his parents. His mom, Maria, had been nice...until she died. His father, Hades, had come to take care of him after that, but they'd never been that close. His father was one of the most anti-social people Nico had ever met. He's probably where Nico inherited his _t__otally_ _superb_people skills from. "Don't you get a say, though?"

"Yeah," Will said, looking sad for some reason. "I do. And I think...well, I've thought it over, and...I've decided to go with my mom."

"Your mom?" The shock must have shown on Nico's face, because Will almost cracked a smile.

"Yeah. I mean, I know she can be a jerk sometimes, but...she also raised me, you know? She didn't take off like my father did, even though technically he didn't know I existed. In fact, I think she was afraid of _me _taking off, of _me _leaving, like he did. So I can kind of understand why she was so controlling all those years, why she wanted me to be a musician and not a doctor like him." Will sighed, looking lost in memories. "She can be nice, too, you know. And I think, after nearly losing me, it's starting to make her look at our relationship differently. We talked about it yesterday, and to be honest, I think I'm going to get a lot more independence from now on."

"Really? That's great!" The thought made Nico strangely happy. "I have some good news, too."

"What news?"

"Well," Nico began, "I just learned this recently, but after Gaea's arrest the police ransacked their headquarters to see any important documents there, and they found some footage of Minos murdering Daedalus that had been recorded by the hotel's video cameras. Apparently, Gaea disliked him too, and had organized his murder as well. The police hadn't bothered to check them before because it had seemed like such an open-and-shut case. I'm getting released from the hospital, I can go to Goode High this year."

"Are you kidding? That's _awesome_!"

"I know, Percy just about exploded when he heard," Nico said. "Congratulated me about twenty times and ended up getting kicked out of my room because he was creating such a disturbance."

Will laughed, and Nico felt his cheeks heat up. "Why can I imagine that all too well?"

He didn't bother to answer that, instead waiting for Will to calm down. "Anyways, by some miracle, I don't have to repeat a year, though I need to get a tutor to help me."

"Really?" Will said. "Who?"

"The principal said I could chose," Nico answered, scanning Will's face for a reaction. "So I'm looking for a person to do it."

"I see," Will had an excellent poker face on. "Any particular reason you're telling me this? I'd thought you'd ask Annabeth. I mean, she's the smartest out of all your friends."

Nico gritted his teeth. "Are you playing dumb on purpose?"

"I'm playing what?" Will looked so innocent that Nico almost wanted to punch him. Almost. His cheeks were on fire, though. Why did Will have to open his eyes so wide when he did that face? It made the cerulean in them stand out even more. Nico felt like there were a thousand butterflies in his stomach trying to fly away.

"Alright, fine, I'm telling you this because I want you to be my tutor," Nico felt flustered, but still managed a glare at Will, who looked all to proud of himself. "Happy?"

"Very," Will admitted. "Though I must warn you, I'm not the best student. I mean, I'm okay, but not extremely spectacular."

"Is that your way of saying your top of the class?" Nico teased. "Anyways, where should we host the sessions?"

"How about my house?" Will suggested. "And after we're done, we can go to the park, maybe walk to the cinema and watch a movie or two."

Nico gave him a suspicious look. "Will Solace, are you trying to ask me out?"

"...And if I am?"

"Well, _if _you are," said Nico, emphasizing the _if, "_then I might, you know, possibly say yes."

"I'm trying to ask you out."

Nico smiled. "It's a date, then."

Will beamed, looking the happiest Nico had ever seen the boy. Nico felt light, like there wasn't anything wrong with the world. For a few blissful seconds, both of them just stood there, grinning their heads off and looking like total goofs.

At least, until from behind them Thalia chirped, "I win the bet."

Will and Nico spun around to see their so-called friends standing there with the most ridiculous smiles on their faces. Well, everyone except Leo. He looked upset.

"You guys are so mean," he whined. "It's not my fault I was an hour off! I'd thought Will would ask _after _the picnic, like every sane person would. But no, Solace had to absolutely daring and ask now. And I thought we were friends!"

"Too bad, Valdez," Piper smirked. "You should have gone with the time I picked. Me and Thalia get to collect."

"What about me?" Percy's grin fell off his face. "I bet this time, too!"

"No you didn't," Annabeth reminded him. "You chose earlier, remember?"

"One_ minute _earlier! One freaking minute! Sixty seconds! It's practically the same thing, right?"

"One minute earlier still is off," Jason told his cousin smugly. "I didn't bet."

"Well, that's because you're a-"

"Language," Annabeth snapped. Then she smiled. "If it makes you feel any better, Seaweed Brain, I bet wrong too. Mine was about-"she checked her watch. "43 seconds earlier precisely."

Percy gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Thanks, Wise Girl."

"Anytime, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth leaned in toward her boyfriend, and they passionately kissed. Everyone else groaned, including Nico.

"This," said Thalia, miming gagging, "Is why I stay single."

"I feel sorry for you," Percy said, once he and Annabeth had pulled away. "You don't know what you're missing."

Personally, Nico agreed with Percy. Not that he'd ever kissed anyone -yet. Who knew where his date with Will would lead? Maybe it would go well, and they could have a second date. And a third. Maybe they could even double date with someone, though perhaps not Percy since he would probably get all protective of his cousin. Hazel and Frank were nice, though, Nico was glad they had also been invited to this picnic along with Calypso and Reyna. Those four were getting a drive from Hazel's father, and were meeting them at the picnic site.

Nico sighed contently. For the time being, things were peaceful (Or as peaceful as can be, with friends like his). He was going to school with Will come September. For the first time, Nico was looking forward to education.

Sometime during the walk, (Nico wasn't sure when) Will's hand slipped into Nico's (Or maybe Nico's hand slipped into his) and they stayed like that for the rest of the trip.

(Behind their backs, Jason and Percy continued the best man discussion. Thalia just grinned maniacally and snapped a photo for blackmail.)

* * *

**I hope this makes up for the lack of Solangelo the past few chapters.**

***Priapus is the god of vegetables. He hit on Hestia once by accident and the gods got _seriously _angry at him for it. DO NOT SEARCH GOOGLE HIM. EVER. And if you do, DO NOT look at any pictures of him! Just like Zeus's symbol is his thunderbolt, his is, ugh, how do I put this...his _vital regions._(Private parts. He has nothing covering _that _area. I am scarred for life, I tell you!)**

**By the way, tell me if I forgot to add an explanation for something. It's probably not because I don't have a reason for it, but because I forgot to add it. So make sure to point out any mistakes (Nicely)!**

**REVIEW?**

**LAST EDITED: 08/22/15**


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